SCS/CT Students Win First Prize at Kenya National Music Festival
This past August, 65 students and ten teachers from two Crossing Thresholds (CT) schools in Kibera traveled to Dedan Kimathi University for the 95th Kenya National Music Festival. With months of diligent rehearsal required, the journey began long before the 3.5 hour bus ride from Nairobi to Nyeri. In order to qualify for the national competition, students aged 12-16 from the Facing the Future Primary School (FAFU) and the MOBJAP Primary School first had to advance through the county and regional rounds.
This entailed everyday training with S'Cool Sounds Kenyan teaching artists (TAs), taking place after school and on weekend afternoons. After arranging and transcribing music along with practice recordings, the intense rehearsal process culminated in dress rehearsals performed for each school before going to festival. Contending with unpredictable power outages and noisy environments, the students and TAs rose to the challenge to qualify for the national competition.
The theme of this year’s festival was “Nurturing Talent for Innovation and Development.” The CT students’ talents were certainly on full display, performing arrangements of popular tunes such as “Omokungu Somiasomia” (Kenyan) and “Sambalele-Hakuna Matata” (a medley of Brazilian and Kenyan tunes). When the scores were tallied, the FAFU band ranked 6th nationally among African-Western instrument ensembles. In the recorder ensemble category, the FAFU group came in 3rd, and MOBJAP took home first prize!
The MOBJAP students were conducted by Erickson Maboko, who is an alumnus of the FAFU school and the SCS/CT music program. Erickson was a member of the first ensemble to win first prize at nationals in 2016, and he has now led the next generation of students to victory with his skillful and committed direction.
When asked about the overall experience, S’Cool Sounds Kenyan Music Director Jacob Saya remarked, “The children get a chance to get out of Kibera to experience the other world. It is invaluable, rejuvenating and exhilarating. Going out fused with winning disrupts the status quo that people from Kibera are limited. It has triggered behavior change for the better…Instead of picking a weapon, the children pick a musical instrument.”
Check out a clip of the MOBJAP School's winning performance, conducted by Erickson Maboko: