Injyana ensembles are organising a great performance, this time teaming up with Akagera National Park in one of Kigali’s biggest musical and cultural events dubbed ‘The Big 5 Concert’.

The concert is slated for tomorrow, Sunday March 18 at Christian Life Assembly (CLA) starting at 4:00pm.

Speaking to The New Times, Lance Gaskill, the conductor of the ensembles said that the concert will take the audience through an exploration of music of various styles.

It will be fun and inspirational, he said.

"Watching and experiencing live concerts is exciting and Injyana Ensemble concerts usually have wonderful surprises. To celebrate the Akagera National Park becoming a big five park, we’ve selected music that has a safari theme, r he said.

Some examples of the titles of music that will be performed "Introduction and Royal March of the Lions”, "Pride of Lions”, "Safari”, "Blues by Five”, and "Jive at Five”.

"We’re including portions of major orchestral works by major composers such as Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, and the large scale 5th Symphony by Russia’s Shostakovich. There’s much more, but we don’t want to give it all away before the concert,” Gaskill added.

The ensembles include the ‘The Injyana Orchestra Rwanda’, the ‘Injyana Jazz Big Band’, ‘Injyana Community Band’ and the "Beginning Strings’.

The ensembles are made up of students and adults from all over Kigali, combining people from different cultures, professions and age groups.

Other highlights of the concert include the other groups that will join the orchestra to make it a memorable experience.

The concert will be culminating with a 100 voice community choir, which is made of Rwandans and Expats here in Kigali.

It will also feature some of the great choirs in Kigali including Choeur International and Chorale de Kigali who will treat the audience to a song of their own.

"What a thrill to combine traditional Rwandan music with a symphony orchestra! Another such feat is the concert opener combining the drumming and dance team from Niyo Arts Gallery with the orchestra performing Turabasuhuza. The Bright 5 Singers will be performing a couple songs during the pre-concert to get the audience warmed-up,” Gaskill noted.

The idea of "The Big 5 Concert” first came up in 2016 during the time when lions were reintroduced into Akagera, and while we were waiting for the arrival of the Black Rhinos.

"In one of our Injyana Orchestra rehearsals I just mentioned the idea off the top of my head – "Hey we should do a Big 5 concert! Think about all the music that we could do.” And soon we were listing of different famous 5th symphonies and other ideas related to ‘5’. The inspiration was contagious and soon after teaming up with Sarah Hall, one of the directors of Akagera National Park, we were ready to make it official, and work together for this great event! Gaskill reveals.

Tickets are available at the door on Sunday for the very low price of Rwf5,000. And children age 5 and under are free.

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