Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:
News  

OperaAbuja 2017… A fertile ground for talent development

By Bridget Chiedu Onochie, Abuja
02 December 2017   |   11:34 pm
THE yearly musical concert, organised by Abuja Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO), holds today, Sunday, November 3, 2017 at Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. With its debut in 2008, AMEMUSO Choir was the brainchild of Maria Cecilia Toledo, wife of former German Ambassador to Nigeria. Since then, she has been committed to the choir,…

Opere Abuja choir during an outing

THE yearly musical concert, organised by Abuja Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO), holds today, Sunday, November 3, 2017 at Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. With its debut in 2008, AMEMUSO Choir was the brainchild of Maria Cecilia Toledo, wife of former German Ambassador to Nigeria. Since then, she has been committed to the choir, as she returns every year from her country of residence to ensure the continuity of the project.

However, since inception, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, has provided a home for the performance that is attended by both Nigerians and members of diplomatic community. According to the Public Relations Manager, Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Mr. Shola Adeyemo, it would have been challenging to package such a high standard performance annually without a conducive environment for rehearsals. The performance that people come to watch for about two hours would not have been possible if we don’t provide a conducive atmosphere for rehearsals. They have rehearsed at the Hilton three times a week at no cost to the organisers in the past 10 years. Recently, the opportunity to rehearse was increased to four times a week because of the children’s arm of AMEMUSO.
 
“The hotel has also provided meeting facilities and refreshment. For us, that was the basic reason the group has sustained its standard. The concert is a product of constant rehearsals without which the quality of the performance would have been affected. We are happy that we have been able to put value to what they do.”
 
On what has been the motivation behind the assistance, Mr. Adeyemo said it has been the group’s commitment towards growing local talents, noting, “We have a lot of latent talents in our churches and in the streets, who do not have a platform to express their musical talents. So, we saw AMEMUSO as a platform, where local talents can be groomed to world class talents. That, for us, is very important. Our Cooperate Social Responsibility hinges on four pillars, one of which is promotion of arts and culture.

“The concert is an instrument for cultural diplomacy and a new instrument for international understanding. Almost every country is represented at the concert, and to that extent, we have achieved the objective of fostering international understanding and peace through music.”

Adeyemo added that the support given to the musical group grows yearly, and not even the harsh economic reality in Nigeria could affect that understanding that continuity is instrumental to the realisation of long-term objectives of AMEMUSO.

In this article

0 Comments