NAC0's 40th Birthday celebration!

Baobab Youth Performers spent a wonderful day on Saturday February 20th onstage and offstage at the National Arts Centre with the NAC Orchestra under the direction of conductor Boris Brott. Joined by some of the ROOTS kids, our large group of drummers and dancers had a terrific time rehearsing on stage with the orchestra and members of the Ottawa Children's Choir & the ORYC, hanging out in Rehearsal Hall A, buying stuff from the performers cafeteria and playing to large crowds at the two afternoon shows. They performed "Gahu Songs" an arrangement for orchestra by William Cahn (of the percussion ensemble NEXUS) of the traditional Ewe Gahu that Kathy Armstrong arranged and taught to the choir members. Hearing the violins, basses, trumpets and other instruments playing the familiar Ghanaian melodies was an unusual and exciting experience for us all. Also on the show was the funny and charming Eugene Levy, who took a few moments with the youth at the end of the performances to pose for a few pictures and have a chat. A few autographs were obtained as well.
It was an honour to be chosen to perform on this special show with the orchestra. Happy Birthday NACO!!! Check out this cool slide show put together by Rory Magill of our meeting with Eugene Levy, featuring kooky urban honk horn music from Ghana.

A Memorable Performance

In honour of Black History month, our Baobab Youth Performers gave a concert this morning at Carleton Heights School here in Ottawa. Arriving in time for a short warm-up, we were warmly welcomed by Principal Jim Taylor, and the rest of the staff. Performing for this small school was a treat! Unlike many elementary schools where music has been cut, this small school has a BIG focus on music. Every one of the 150 students takes music as part of their regular timetable. They play instruments including recorder, as well as a special unit they did with a class set of djembe drums earlier this year. They were an attentive and engaged audience and responded well to the Ghanaian chants we taught them, as well as some spontaneous dancing and terrific questions at the end.
It was a pretty exciting concert from our viewpoint as well! Because it was during school time some of our students were not able to make it due to tests etc. This meant that those performing had to rearrange themselves and cover extra parts. In addition, it was the first time Riley played lead drum for Gota...a goal he has been working hard on since the fall. It went very well!
We had a moment of strange serendipity though, when I introduced Fume Fume and told the audience that the translation of the song were going to sing was "I shall dance Fume Fume until I die!", meaning that the dancing was SO strenuous, that they would be exhausting themselves. Its true that the dancing IS very strenuous. Shortly after the piece began, one of our youngest and newest performers began to bleed from her foot (an old wound that had reopened due to the dance moves). At first we tried to ignore it...she was smiling and continuing to dance well. But it soon became evident that her foot was not going to give up, and there was a substantial amount of blood on the dance floor which was beginning to be a slippery problem for the other dancers. True professionals though, everyone kept going. We finally signaled to the injured dancer to go get some bandages from our manager Hayley and we finished the piece. What a trouper! These are the kinds of stories that make it into our oral history amongst performers...just like Anna dancing with a bleeding foot in Ghana, and like the Bell Forest that lasted over an hour last season....
Always proud to perform with this wonderful bunch of teens! We look forward to future projects with Carleton Heights. KA

Drumming UP Support!

Last Sunday saw a packed room at City View United Church for our concert in support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation- Grandmother's Campaign and our Footsteps to Ghana tour. Hosted by the church, the afternoon featured two sets of performances by the Baobab Youth Performers, and some drumming by the Capital Grannies Drumming group. We shared delicious sweets made by the Capital Grannies and served by the City View Youth, along with information about the wonderful work the Grandmothers are doing to support the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and news about the Youth Performers' educational tour to Ghana in July 2011. More than $1100 was raised for the benefit of the two organizations. Kudos to all who helped out, especially parent and City View member Chris Tibelius, and thanks to everyone who came out to the event! A highlight was the finale featuring both groups drumming together.