☔️☔️ African Art Song: “Ojo Maa Ro” (Let it Rain!) by Ayo Bankole
🎤Omo Bello
🎹 Rebeca Omordia 🪘 Richard Olatunde Baker

Part of our African flute series, the ọjà flute of the Igbo people of Nigeria plays a central role in their social, cultural & spiritual events. It is considered the “soul” of Igbo cultural music and is a key communication tool, often referred to as a “talking instrument”.

When the European flute is used to express certain features of African traditional music, creating a new genre - African art music for flute, a blend of Western classical music and African traditional music. Nigerian composer Akin Euba is a leading figure of the Nigerian School of art music.

The Fula flute, European flute and the balafon are increasingly found in cross-genre music,often in fusion collaborations that blend traditional West African music with Western styles, bridging the traditional West African scales with the chromatic possibilities of Western instruments.

🪈🎶 Baba Gallé Kanté plays the Fula flute. Considered the national instrument of the Fulani people of West Africa, the Fula flute holds significant cultural value, used in traditional music for storytelling, ceremonies, and connecting with ancestral traditions.

Jamaican Medley (excerpt) by Eleanor Alberga performed by Maria Thompson Corley | African Women at The African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall 2025.
#womencomposers #jamaican

Glorious ✨🎶Psalm to Windrush by Shirley J Thompson performed by Nadine Benjamin soprano & Maria Thompson Corley piano | African Women at The African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall 2025.

Dancing into the Bank Holiday weekend on Gambian rhythms. ✨🎶Tunde Jegede & the African Classical Music Ensemble | The African Concert Series at Wigmore Hall 2025

🎶 19 July, 11.30AM at @wigmore-hall.org.uk
🌗 Moon Waters with Tunde Jegede.
🎫 £5 under 35s www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202...

Double bass virtuoso Leon Bosch introduces the Ubuntu Ensemble ahead of their performance at @wigmore-hall.org.uk on 19 July.

🎶 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202... 🎫 £5 under 35s [sing up first]

African Classical Music at @wigmore-hall.org.uk !
🗓️ Join us as we return with another day of concerts on 19 July!
🎫 £5 under 35s! www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/ser...

🎶 Acclaimed Nigerian artist Gerald Eze, known as Ogbu-Ọjà, master performer of the Ọjà performs at the series on
🗓️ Saturday, 19 July, 7.30pm at @wigmore-hall.org.uk alongside @richardolatunde.bsky.social
@rebecaomordia.bsky.social & Ubuntu Ensemble
🎫 www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202...

“Sanctuary” by Maria Thompson Corley combines her own arrangements of Spirituals, “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me” and “Motherless Child,” while featuring other thematic material.