OHIO Wind Symphony presents concert celebrating international collaboration, Ghanaian martial music

The Ohio University Wind Symphony will present a special concert on Sunday, Sept. 29, beginning at 4 p.m. at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Auditorium celebrating the martial music of Ghana.

This event, which is free and open to the public, marks the culmination of a fruitful collaboration with the security bands of Ghana sparked by last year's African Brass: A concert of Neo-African Traditional and Art Music concert in Ghana. That groundbreaking event, organized and directed by Professor Paschal Yao Younge of the School of Music in the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts, aimed to broaden perspectives about intercultural music education, compositions and decolonization in African musical arts.  

The 2023 concert helped local musicians to find new ways of understanding neo-African traditional and contemporary performing arts. The focus was highlighting new compositions in which thematic materials are derived from African resources, but which are otherwise Western in idiom and instrumentation.

This project enhanced and supported the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts, the School of Music, and the University's vision of global engagement.

Joining the Wind Symphony for the Sept. 29 event will be the following special guests:

• ACP Dr. Frank Kwashie Kekeli Hukporti, the conductor of the concert, is the curator of Bandmastership Studies at the Methodist University College, Ghana, and a part-time lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon. Hukporti, is currently the Director of Bands, responsible for the affairs of all the Police Bands nationwide.
• ADO I Titus Kwabena Ofori Arko, who is Assistant Divisional Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service Band, Territorial Songsters Leader/Bandmaster, and Divisional Music Director of Accra Division of the Salvation Army of Ghana, will be a guest trumpeter at the concert. 

Their presence honors the growing partnership between Ohio University and Ghana.

According to Professor William Talley, director of the Ohio University Wind Symphony, this concert is not just a performance but a transformative experience. As the Wind Symphony prepares to travel to Ghana for performances with the Security Services Bands next year, this cultural exchange promises to significantly enrich the musical experiences of OHIO students, faculty, and audiences, inspiring a more open-minded and enlightened approach to music.

The concert program will feature a diverse repertoire of Neo Ghanaian Arts Music including martial music arranged and or composed by Hukporti due to his Musical Domestication agenda in Ghana. Musical Domestication is a concept coined by Hukporti to emphasize the use of traditional, folklore, and Pentecostal praise songs for symphonic band music. This is because the mandate of a military band is to render national or patriotic anthems and songs of one's own country and that of others.

Musical Domestication, as Hukporti explained, involves adapting these traditional songs into symphonic band music, thereby preserving and promoting Ghana's rich musical heritage within a contemporary context. His idea has gained a robust and comprehensive spread influence on the entire musical culture of the Ghanaian socio-cultural environment, which has led most brass bands within the orthodox churches, such as brigade bands, senior high school bands, and other community brass bands, including the Security Service bands playing new Ghanaian derived music.

All members of the OHIO community are invited to this opportunity to immerse yourself in an unforgettable afternoon of Ghanaian music and international collaboration.