School of Music unites with Ghanaian brass musicians for cultural exchange and performance

A blossoming partnership between OHIO’s School of Music and Ghanaian musicians continues to develop in ways that benefit students and audience members alike, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Dr. Paschal Younge and his lifelong love of brass music.

Younge reflects that the brass tradition of his home country of Ghana often lives in churches and regimental bands, but that “brass has been growing and developing in Ghana for some years now.”

When he realized he had colleagues directing and performing in security bands around Ghana, Younge collaborated with them to develop African Brass: A concert of Neo-African Traditional and Art Music in December 2023. Inspired by this performance, Younge decided that he needed to “find a way to introduce our students to this and maybe through that our students can also go to Ghana in the future to experience this.”

The next step in this dream of international exchange begins this week, by bringing guest artists from Ghana to OHIO to perform together and share in research rooted in ethnomusicology.

Younge welcomes to campus Assistant Commissioner of Police Dr. Frank Kwashie Kekeli Hukporti, who directs all police bands nationwide in Ghana and teaches at the Methodist University College and University of Ghana, Legon and who is accompanied by guest trumpeter Titus Kwabena Ofori Arko, assistant divisional officer of the Ghana National Fire Service Band, Territorial Songsters leader/bandmaster, and divisional music director of Accra Division of the Salvation Army of Ghana.

Hukporti will share with students his concept of Musical Domestication, adapting traditional Ghanaian songs into the western symphonic traditions that were brought to Ghana by colonial powers.

“Because we belong to the regimental marching bands, most of the pieces that we play are European oriented because the bands were formed by the British,” Hukporti explains. “I was in Germany for four years for my Ph.D. and I realized that most of the marches that they play, they sing along. So, I said, if that is the concept that they are portraying, we also have melodies that we can use. Anytime we play, our people will also sing along.”

OHIO Director of Bands Dr. Will Talley agrees that the addition of local culturally significant material over a Western musical form enhances the richness of the experience for student artists.

“Our students are familiar with these British forms, the march forms…and this is particularly engaging for them to get to see how these ideas are modified and how it is culturally significant to the people of Ghana,” Talley said.

As a performer, Arko says he can see the difference from the stage as he plays trumpet along with Musical Domestication material.

“When you play the Western marches, people who are musically inclined enjoy it. But when you fuse the traditional songs into the marches, the people sing along, and they appreciate it more…they feel more belonging. You can see that in the faces of people wherever you perform,” Arko added.

OHIO’s largest contingent of international students are also from Ghana, so the expectation is that these traditional tunes, drawing from everything from folklore melodies and Pentecostal praises, will be a reminder of home.

“With such a huge contingent of Ghanaian students on this campus, what better opportunity to fuse these cultures together and to celebrate the richness of both the American culture of band and the Ghana culture,” Talley said.  “I’m excited to have them here, I’m excited to have a colleague like Paschal, and I’m excited to get to be a part.”

This cross Atlantic team of musical explorers will continue to dream of even bigger opportunities to collaborate and are already strategizing a plan for the OHIO Wind Ensemble to travel to play on Ghanaian soil in the coming academic years.

Until then, the best opportunity to hear this burgeoning form that merges cultures and melodies will be when Hukporti and Arko join the OHIO Wind Ensemble on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 4 p.m. in the Templeton Blackburn Memorial Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.