adminOne such event is the National Institute of Allied Arts annual festival whose curtain comes down today. According to NIAA’s treasurer, who is also one of the director’s assistants, Ms Allison Garrard, over 1 000 schools from across Zimbabwe participated.
“The registered schools came in groups, some of them of up to 50 students in the choirs.
“This means that we have over 1 790 students that took part in this festival. We were excited to have more that came through from outside Harare,” added Ms Garrard.
This year marks the 100th year of the arts festival’s existence since its inception in 1913.
Both junior and senior schools gathered at different venues among them Harare International and Prince Edward for the vocal and instrumental showdown.
The categories include the traditional African and Western instruments, choirs grouped into traditional, Western gospel and contemporary, African and Western solo music acts, orchestras, bands and many other vocal challenges.
True to the treasurer’s word, Cool Lifestyle saw students from schools from as far as Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Mutare and Marondera. Among the Harare schools were St George’s, Dominican Convent, Oriel Boys and Girls High, Watershed, Harare Girls High, Zengeza, etc.
Ms Garrard was also excited about the participation of Government schools like Zengeza and St Mary’s from Chitungwiza, pointing out that the NIAA is a national institute that is open for all schools.
According to the NIAA’s records, this year, a wide selection of internationally acclaimed judges from all parts of the world was selected.
“ . . . Tendekai Kuture, who has been in music education circles for the past 25 years; opera specialist from the United States Ainsley Ryan and Malawi-born Lindsay
Johnson, who is not only a former NIAA performer, but a well travelled head of a music school in Durban, were part of our panel of judges,” read the document.
The crème de la crème, who outshone the rest in overall competitions, will lock horns in the final concert today at the Harare International School.
In recent years, there have been music strong- holds, but according to one of the judges, Mr Kuture, this year the competition is stiff.
“Choirs were very hard to judge this year because most of them were extremely good. They were taking the advice we were giving them to heart. They were working on their flaws and coming back with brilliant performances,” he said.
This was in spite of controversy that had been sparked amid allegations that he had passed racist remarks during his adjudication.
Mr Kuture cleared the air to the Press, insisting he was misunderstood.
“I did not criticise any foreigners for singing in Shona. What I merely said was that different nationalities have their particular styles of singing and should therefore embrace them.
“Africans have plain sounding voices and should not use the quiver or vibrator (causing the voice to shake) when singing like what other nationalities do,” he stressed.
Besides the Tuesday hiccup, events proceeded smoothly with no other complaints for the rest of the week.
Online Reporter