CU Highlife Ensemble Outreach Concert in Nederland

3/2/2006 - Once again the Mountain Community Music and Arts Association offers a fantastic evening of music and art via its “In Remote Keys” series. As cosponsors, the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Music and the Outreach Committee proudly presents the CU West African Highlife Ensemble Outreach Concert in Nederland, The concert will feature a program of high energy, tightly knit traditional drumming and Highlife music from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameron, Congo, and South Africa. The concert will be held at the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church at 4:00 pm on March 12. There is a suggested donation at the door of $5 per adult, and as always, children are free.

The CU West African Highlife Ensemble, led by Professor of Ethnomusicology Kwasi Ampene, was the first university ensemble in the U.S. to perform highlife music. The group includes thirty music and non-music majors from the CU-Boulder campus.

Highlife

Highlife is a form of popular music from West Africa, widely heard, especially, in Ghana and Nigeria. The roots of highlife can be traced to 19th century British Regimental band music along the West African coast, 20th century palm wine guitar, and traditional songs. The development of highlife is the result of interactions with European cultures, urbanization, and the formation of new social identities. For urbanized Africans who may be working far away from home, highlife continues from where traditional music left off. Highlife is performed in the cafés, nightclubs, ballrooms, concert halls, and other places of entertainment. These are venues where traditional music is not performed.

The CU West African Highlife Ensemble was formed in the fall of 2000 when Kwasi Ampene joined the College of Music faculty. It is the only student highlife ensemble in the United States, functioning as a key component of the College of Music’s venture into the intriguing world of ethnomusicology. The 30 available positions in the ensemble are highly coveted by students campus-wide. The Highlife Ensemble offers a unique opportunity to not only explore but also create music entirely new to American students. World-class artists celebrated internationally for their musical skills further enrich the highlife experience with quest appearances. The privilege of performing with artists of international repute combined with regular and disciplined rehearsals result in highly professional, inspiring, and terrific performances that are the hallmark of the annual highlife concerts.

Since the inception of the Highlife Ensemble, over 20,000 enthusiastic concertgoers and bedazzled children have thrilled to the excitement of more than 180 student players. This is accomplished through an annual spring concert and statewide community outreach. Recent appearances include annual meetings of Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), and the African Literature Association (ALA), highly prestigious international organizations. We have performed in the following schools as part of our Community Outreach Program: Salida High School, Yuma Middle and High Schools, Denver School for the Arts, Casey Middle and Nevin Platt Middle Schools in Boulder. Additional community performances are for the Longmont Council for Arts, the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts in Lafayette, the Modern Music Festival in Boulder, Bantaba Studio for World Dance in Boulder, a concert with the Colorado Chorale in Englewood, and now to the communities near Nederland through the Mountain Community Music and Arts Association’s In Remote Keys Concert.