THE GUARDIAN, Sunday, March 3, 2013
30 SUNDAYMAGAZINE
LAFETE Iroko Band set to thrill music lovers today cious home made African beverages like HIS year’s Iroko Valentine show will hold T today at Hall One of the City Mall Shopping Zobo, while a wide variety of more stimulating drinks and wines will also be availCentre, Onikan Lagos, from 4pm to 11pm. Apart from Ola Balogun’s musical group, Iroko, the show features the evergreen highlife maestro, Fatai Rolling Dollar, as well as a leading Congolese band, the Mukando All Stars of Kinshasa, led by Tino Mukando, a well known and highly appreciated saxophonist and vocalist Dubbed, Africana: A feast of music and love, the show’s primary purpose is to promote and propagate authentic contemporary African music, as well as provide music lovers an opportunity to relax, dance and enjoy. In order to complement the musical performances, a popular Lagos-based dance troupe, the Rainbow dancers, will thrill audiences with a combination of traditional Nigerian dances and free style contemporary African dance. Attendance at the Africana show has been moderately priced to place it within the reach of most music lovers, with gate fees fixed at N3,000 for singles and N5,000 for couples. The show has also been conceived by Ola Balogun, as a family-friendly affair, with fans being encouraged to bring along their children to join in the fun at a cost of only N1,000 for accompanied minors. Wholesome snacks and grilled delicacies will be available, along with soft drinks, deli-
able from the bar. In keeping with the objective of promoting authentic contemporary African music, part of the show will be broadcast live on Metro FM for the benefit of Lagosbased music enthusiasts, while totality of the concert will be specially recorded on high definition video by the Nigerian Television Authority for subsequent broadcast in Nigeria and other countries of the world.
Ola Balogun
WED Expo holds March 21 AVING successfully brought together H some of the brightest brains in the wedding industry under one roof last year, WED
Ikeja, Lagos, has been described as the biggest wedding show in West Africa. Akin Eso, a life and business coach, who made an inroad into the Nigerian wedding industry few years ago, publishes WED Magazine.
Magazine is set to stage a wedding expo from March 21 to 24 at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Already, the organisers have provided an ultra-modern Dome built by Balmoral to accommodate over 200 exhibitors expected at the show. Managed by InnovoEdge Exhibitions, an international exhibition firm, some of the activities billed for the four-day event include WED Awards, designed to appreciate creative talents in the industry, Best of Cakes Competition, and Wedding Fashion Show. There are also Honeymoon giveaways from Starwood Hotels for married couples who are exhibitors and visitors and an opportunity to win i-Pads, Blackberry phones, gowns, suits and lots of great discounts. A host of professionals such as Tosan Jemide of Cakes by Tosan, Banke Meshida Lawal of BM-Pro and Tsoule will feature in the expo designed to produce budding talents and professionals in the industry. Last year, exhibitors were drawn from the makeup industry, bridal accessory retailers, photographers and video studios, dress makers, cake makers, decorators, planners, AsoOke makers and many others who directly or indirectly are involved in wedding organisation. The exhibition featured about 135 exhibitors and had at least over 10,000 visitors in attendance. The exhibition, which held at The Haven in Eso
Moment With Mo: Time to tell your stories about anyone in any corner of the world, to is about moments: the rough and the triLtheIFE umphs; the highs and the lows; the painful and tell his or her stories to a global audience on the EbonyLife TV Channel via the DStv and spectacular; the bitter and the reflective, the
Iroko lead singer on stage
SPAN begins music education programme line with its plans of revamping performarts education in the country, Society IforNingthe Performing Arts in Nigeria (SPAN)
Academy of Jazz and Contemporary Music is set to run a two-year simultaneous programme in music education and developing approximately 100 youths in the elements of Jazz, Contemporary and African music. The training, the Society said in a statement, would involve various instruments including drums, bass guitar, piano, saxophone, and guitar. The Curriculum is built to provide hands-on experience for every student, triggering their practical study and understanding of the application of music principles and elements to ethnic music, hence creating a new sound, understanding and perspective to the African music without changing its original form. “The Faculty is represented by the best set of educationist when it comes to bass guitar and drums education in Nigeria. The members of the Faculty are wide travelled with over 30 years of experience teaching in several faculties in universities around the continent and world class performance in jazz, contemporary and African music,” the statement said. According to the Society, this growth has been categorised into stages to help managed the capital expenditure of running such a faculty and academy. “The first phase is to run a six-month certificate programme that will be instrument specific. This pilot phase resumed classes in September 2012 with a total of 20 students registering for drum and bass guitar training under the Academy. The programme will focus on drilling and mentoring the drummers and bass guitar students in the elements of musicianship, technique, and character.” Already, the school has started affiliation programmes with international performing
dramatic and the mundane. Moments are the ingredients that create great stories. All around Nigeria, Africa and the world, there is a story waiting to be told and heard. The great news now is that everyone, noble or humble, with a unique story of courage, hope, resilience, pride, audacity, success or pain can now tell it to a pan African and global audience in the coming season of the internationally acclaimed TV talk show, Moments With Mo, now sitting exclusively and airing on the new EbonyLife TV Channel on the DStv platform, and globally on Sky TV in the UK, DISH in the United States, with roll out plans also including Brazil, Canada and other parts of Europe. The new season of Moments With Mo is currently being packed with loads of fresh and exciting features. First, and most importantly, is that in the fashion of democratising exclusivity, people can now tell their inspiring stories on Moments With Mo. The new season will empower Nigerians, and just
arts institute, Music, Dance and Drama Academy across the globe, five exceptional students from the Maiden Music programme were given opportunity to visit the Tshwane University of Technology (Faculty of Music) for a two-week exchange programme that involved “a lot of intensive workshops, trainings with professors from the faculty, exposing them to variety of depth when it comes Jazz and contemporary music and general music education at large. Some part of the itinerary included trip to the Zoo Lake Bowls jam Session, Puppies Café for Jam Sessions, A slot to perform at the Concert in Johannesburg organised by ‘Carlo Monbelli and the Prisoners of Change’. “These, amongst others, are plans and activities of SPAN to revamp performing arts education in Nigeria. We are successfully running a drama academy franchise (Helen O’Grady Drama Academy) already adopted in over 15 countries around the world including African countries such as South Africa, Egypt and Gambia. This Academy originally from Australia is designed to improve the total being of our children tailored to develop their confidence, creativity, agility, communication and teamwork from a very young age. We currently have over 600 kids studying this curriculum on termly basis across nine schools on the Lagos Island. “Our mission rallies round providing much needed performing arts education opportunities to the youths and children of Nigeria, bridging the need to improve, grow and develop a career in the performing arts, either in dance, drama and music. Our programmes this year include outreach to low-income communities, juvenile centres, shelters for orphanages and other education centres.” Mo Abudu
other international platforms. According to Sandra Amadio, Associate Director Programmes, Magazine & Talk – EbonyLife TV, “as we plan the launch of our new season of Moments With Mo, we take this opportunity to invite all celebrities, VIPS and ordinary people doing extraordinary things to our state of the art studios based in the beautiful and serene city of Calabar to take advantage of the opportunity to be featured on Moments With Mo. For the first time ever, we are giving Nigerians and Africans an opportunity to share their stories, dreams and aspirations with the world.” Speaking further, she said, “it could be any story; from overcoming a challenge, to building a successful business, starting a new venture, discovering or displaying talent, to nation building and innovation creation, new movie releases and so on. All you need to do to be featured on Moments With Mo is simply visit www.xciteafrica.com for the simple details.” Buttressing the issue, CEO of EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu, said, “it’s the seventh year of Moments With Mo. In those seven years, we have interviewed all kinds of interesting guests from presidents to governors and celebrities to a wide array of unsung everyday people, who are doing extraordinary things. We are excited to say now that with Moments With Mo becoming a daily show, we can now feature as many stories as possible from everyone across the world. So, whoever you are, whatever your moments, happy, reflective, political or inspirational, the show now offers anyone the platform to tell his or her story and be heard nationally and globally.” Apart from the plan to make the new Moments With Mo a daily show, which means viewers can now expect interesting, thought provoking and engaging topics that are relevant to a pan African and global audience on a daily basis, the talk show will now cast the spotlight on young and equally exciting, debonair and sophisticated co-hosts alongside the show’s principal host, Mo Abudu. This will give the show a cool, youthful and dynamic outlook, while preserving the timelessness of the long-running programming.