An American rock band, Islands, will on Saturday perform for free alongside Ben Mankhamba and the Zigzaggers at Luchenza Community Centre in Thyolo.
Guitarist and lead vocalist Nick Thorburn, bassist Evan Gordon and his brother keyboardist Geordie will perform at the event to launch the Komai project, where pupils at Mwitera Primary School will learn traditional and western music.
In an interview on Wednesday, Thorburn putting two thumbs up and said it felt great to perform for the project, in a country with no music on the primary school curriculum.
“Music unites us. It brings happiness. In other worlds, it makes learning other subjects easier so it is unfortunate that there is no music as a subject in primary school. We have been here for a week and have been impressed with the raw talent among the pupils,” said Thorburn.
The project will kick-off with an intensive teacher training course for a group of local teachers and musicians, conducted by Komai’s Music Coordinators, Max Jaffe and US-based musician Masauko Chipembere and ethnomusicologist Waliko Makhala.
Throughout the year, Komai will conduct teacher training through their volunteer programme with New York’s ‘The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music’.
