Ghanaian composer and popular trumpet player, Berima Amo has been commissioned to compose two musical pieces after he was named among the recipients of the 2021 Performing Arts Social Fund in the Netherlands.
The fund aims to stimulate development in the performing arts and seeks to empower creators who want to invest in the artistic quality of their work.
Amo, who is one of 58 composers and the only African recipient of the fund this year, will compose his pieces with Music Stages, a section of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
It is worth mentioning that this is not Amo’s first interaction with the orchestra. In April this year, shortly after the release of his ‘Africa Was Born in Me’ single, he collaborated with the Music Stages for the ‘Rotary Vinkeveen-Abcoude’s’ virtual benefit concert.
Touching on his latest achievement, Berima Amo said:
“I’m very excited about the grant, especially around this COVID season when most of us musicians are not working. I am looking forward to collaborating with accomplished musicians in Amsterdam on the new project.
“Being given the opportunity to write in my own style, combining it with classical and string instruments, I feel like I’m swimming in my own space because those are the things that I’ve grown up with and I’ll be adding that African flavor to the compositions”.
Berima Amo
Further speaking, Amo noted that the Dutch funding will go to his foundation’s resource center to train emerging African musicians and establish a platform for creatives to finetune their skills.
The musician, who last year secured an endorsement deal with Austrian trumpet maker Schagerl, is currently in Ghana working on new music with the Osaberima Big Band, the country’s first highlife big-band project in 30 years. An album with the band is also due for release in September this year.
It can be recalled that Berima Amo recently released his latest single. ‘Africa Was Born In Me’, sung in English and Twi, is off Amo’s ‘Back In Ghana’ album, which is his latest collection with the Nkabom AfroBand.
It journeys on the traditional and festive ‘Adowa’ rhythm, with traditional percussion instruments and choral harmony.
The song was released on March 6, 2021, to coincide with the 64th anniversary of Independence Day in Ghana.
Berima in an interview disclosed that he drew inspiration from an enduring sentiment by Kwame Nkrumah for the song’s title and theme: “I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.”
According to the trumpeter, the Nkrumah quote should serve as both a motivating force and the “glue between all blacks in the diaspora. We are one people. Because a lot of blacks and non-blacks call Africa home even though they weren’t born in Africa or haven’t been to Africa before.”
According to Berima, the record is a rallying call to Africans scattered across the world to return home.
Well, in the past few of years, this call has been especially heeded. In 2019, for example, some 1.5 million tourists visited Ghana under the ‘Year of Return’ campaign.
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