ORFF AFRIQUE MASTER CLASS 2025
Friday, June 20 - Saturday, July 5, 2025
(optional tourist activities July 5-10, 2025)
Summer Course with immersive, hands-on experience in Children's Games, Dance, Drum, Xylophone, Vocal/Choral Music in the Orff-Schulwerk Style
Dr. Kofi J.S. Gbolonyo - director
With other instructors including
Sofia López-Ibor, Doug Goodkin, James Harding,
Aaron Bebe, Prosper Gbolonyo and local guest teachers
Nunya Music Academy
Dzodze, Volta Region, Ghana
COURSE DETAILS
Date: Friday, June 20 - Saturday, July 5, 2025
(optional tourist activities: July 5-10)
Location: Dzodze, Ghana, West Africa
Host Institution: Nunya Music Academy
Collaborating Institution: San Francisco International Orff Course (SFIOC)
Course Venue: Nunya Music Academy & White Dove Hotel, Dzodze, Ghana
Language of Instruction: English
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The music of West Africa birthed an unparalleled musical explosion in the African Diaspora—blues, gospel, jazz, rock, pop, hip-hop, reggae, calypso, samba, salsa and more can all be traced back to the vibrant musical cultures still alive and growing in West Africa. Children in music classes throughout the world delight in playing, singing and dancing “African” music, but teachers are often woefully unprepared to do the music justice, presenting a watered-down version with no knowledge of cultural context.
Without an understanding of its cultural context and its deep connection with dance, oral tradition and its role in daily life, much of its power is lost. Consequently, interest in and search for a holistic knowledge and skills in West African music, dance, games, and culture continue to grow today, in the fields of Music Orff-Schulwerk, Ethnomusicology, World Music Percussion, Dance Ethnology, Cross-Cultural Pedagogy and Multicultural Music and Interdisciplinary Education.
This course, which offers a rare opportunity to learn and experience the music in its natural setting, is directed by Prof. Kofi Gbolonyo, a remarkable teacher schooled in traditional ways in his home town of Dzodze, Ghana, while also trained in both Orff Schulwerk and Western university methods.
Drawing from the success of the live Orff-Afrique Courses (OA) in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023, and the online versions in 2020 and 2021; International Body Music Festival (IBMF) 2018 and Nunya Academy Summer Institute (NASI) 2017 and 2024 (all of which had a life-changing impact on hundreds of music teachers), this unique summer course offers the opportunity for an immersive study in the place where these musical traditions live and breathe. While Orff-Afrique was geared toward music and dance educators working with children in schools, it is also developed keeping in mind the interests of ethnomusicology students and teachers, performing musicians and dancers and those willing to go deeply into the music, the dance and the background surrounding them. The course is centered in Dzodze, a small town in the Southeastern corner of the Volta Region of Ghana on the border of the Republic of Togo.
In this two-week course, traditions are studied from a perspective that emphasizes participant-observation hands-on experience. The course will focus on children’s games and general music and dance repertoire including drumming, xylophone playing, dancing, and learning indigenous vocal music, songs and games from the diverse cultures of Ghana and other West African countries including Togo and Benin. Alongside the hands-on learning will be lectures, concerts and field trips as well as observation of and work with students in local schools in the traditional village environment including Nunya Music Academy, the course’s host institution. Lecture topics will include music and dance education, history, Ewe language, religion, and general African musical elements including rhythm, polyphony, and vocal styles and their relationship with other African, African Diasporic and African-inspired art forms and histories. Onsite visits to celebrations, ceremonies, and rituals will be combined with instruction by traditional musicians, artists and guest lectures by culture bearers.
Also, to connect the traditional West African materials and skills to Orff-Schulwerk, international and multicultural classrooms globally and on-stage choreography processes as well as to other musical styles such as jazz, Latin, and Western choral musical traditions we have an array of world class Orff-Schulwerk master teachers joining us to help teach.
In an optional third week, participants are invited to remain for touristic activities in Ghana (See Program Details below).
FACULTY and STAFF
Leading the course will be Kofi Gbolonyo, a UBC and Capilano University Professor of Ethnomusicology, African Studies and Jazz Studies; an Orff-Schulwerk Specialist; and the Founding Director of Nunya Music Academy and the Orff-Afrique Summer Program. A Ghanaian native, Dr. Gbolonyo (PhD & M.A., University of Pittsburgh) will combine his traditional, cultural and artistic upbringing and training as a Ghanaian musician, dancer and culture bearer with his academic interests and knowledge of Ethnomusicology, African Music and Dance, African Studies and Music Education.
Joining him will be:
Kofi’s brother, Prosper Kwasi Gbolonyo (Nunya Academy, Principal and Artistic Director), Aaron Sukura Bebe (Gile/Xylophone Instructor, Univ. of Ghana, Legon), along with a selection of seasoned Ghanaian master drummers, dancers, xylophonists, traditional and contemporary vocal music composers and singers. Also we have an array of world class Orff-Schulwerk teachers joining us to help teach and connect the materials and skills to Orff-Schulwerk classrooms, contemporary, international and multicultural classrooms globally and on-stage choreography processes as well as to other musical styles such as jazz, Latin, and Western choral. These world class instructors include Sofia Lopez-Ibor, Doug Goodkin, James Harding.
Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study with master teachers while immersed in Ghanaian village life!
In an optional third week (July 5-10), participants are invited to remain for touristic activities in Ghana (See Program Details below).
