Kenya: Musical Excellence Marks the Arrival of Ravenna Festival

NAIROBI---With his well-defined flamboyance and gestures in music, from the smallest detail to the overall shape of a piece, world-famous Italian Maestro Riccardo Muti, Conductor and Music Director, ascended to the podium sending a crowd of Kenyan Classical music lovers into elated bliss. He skillfully demonstrated mastery of various musical styles backed by his more than 200 members of different Orchestras at a concert in Nairobi's Uhuru Park grounds on July 9.

Maestro Muti barely had time to take a rest as he traveled directly from the airport, together with his group, to the performance venue.

Before an estimated crowd of about 4,000 people who flocked the park to quench their souls, a humble Riccardo Muti saluted his audience to welcome the arrival of Ravenna festival roads of friendship in Kenya which went down the annals of history as his first concert in sub Sahara Africa.

Resplendent in his well cut designer suit, Muti never stopped to mesmerise Kenyans and the Italian Community with the best classical music presentation ever heard in the country. The combination of the sentimental classical tunes rent the air, leaving the packed recreational centre in ecstasy.

The stage was magnificent, enough to spur exaltation. As the choruses belted out their golden voices, it was evident that the 69-year-old Grammy Award winner was out to offer Nairobi a show of a life time. 

He took many by surprise when he opened his performance by playing the Kenyan National Anthem. This indeed reminded many Kenyans of the military parades normally held at the park.

Kenyans are not accustomed to the silence that should be maintained when listening to classical music, they are used to screaming in the middle of an act or song but they quickly understood the beauty of classical music and kept silent. 

“We like to sing along with the musician in live concerts as opposed to the Italians”, says Alfred Wangila, one of the enthusiastic revelers.

The stage thrill dominated the ceremony with young talented Kenyan opera singers; the Ole Moipei quartet of Mary, Magdalene, Martha and Serafine, did not disappoint as they delighted the audience with their breathtaking vocal might.

The transition from the powerful orchestra music to an artistic display of traditional African dances from the Bomas of Kenya dancers and acrobatic stunts back-dropped by the pulsating sounds of an assortment of African percussions saw the multitude cheer on in every bit of action which proved to be rattling.

From the time the ceremony kicked off at 2.30 pm, every moment seemed sensational as high-flying dignitaries and top CEOs joined artistes and thousands of fans to grace the daylong event, whose sole aim was to raise scholarship funds for needy children in the slums of Kenya. Among those in attendance was Kenya’s Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Italian ambassador to Kenya Paola Imperiale and faith-based leaders, including the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya Alain Paul Lebeaupin.

Members of the public from all walks of life braved the cold afternoon to attend the concert which was free of charge.

21-boy group from the Koinonia boys’ acrobatic, a group comprising of street children with the talent in performing arts under the care of Koinonia Community, a charitable trust established in Kenya, accompanied Muti’s team in Italy and performed at this year’s Ravenna Festival.

Their week-long participation in the annually held festival was to stage performances in the concerts of the festival which was being held in three cities of Piacenza, Ravenna and culminating in Nairobi.

Rickon Mwiinga a member of the acrobat troupe says this tour was the best he has ever experienced which has helped him learn a lot about classical music.

“To me the Ravenna Festival was successful”, he said “performing alongside Riccardo Muti from one city to another in front of thousands of people was so fascinating and quite inspiring,” recalls Mwiinga.

“It was an extraordinary experience for the Koinonia Children – confirms Fr. Kizito, founder Koinonia Community – A new world of music has opened up for them.”

The crowning performance of the Nairobi concert that evening was the fusion of the Orchestra Cherubini, the Safaricom Choir and children from the Italian missions in Kenya who took the stage and did the “Va Pensiero”, the final piece of the day. With brief interruption by long rounds of applause, the concert lasted two hours.

This immortalized event characterized by few technical and logistical hitches was easily dominated by the marvelous performances and dances.