Local artistes gear up for traditional music gala

Lovers of Rwandan traditional music are set for a special gala night where they will enjoy traditional music performances from the very best musicians of the genre. Dubbed ‘Gakondo Music Gala,’ the inaugural event is slated for June 22 at Impact Hub, Kiyovu, and will bring together different traditional musicians who will share a stage. According to Victor Rukotana, a member of the organising team, the event aims at raising awareness about cultural values in society through traditional music while more talents in the genre can be detected and given exposure since the event will be happening every month. “Traditional music events are getting rarely organised these days. But, by organising this, we think this would be a huge boost to our culture while we expect new talents to be discovered through this platform. We want to create a vibrant atmosphere among our audience and our aim is to showcase that traditional music is alive. We know there is a big audience out there who like traditional music and have been waiting for this,” he told The New Times. Rukotana, himself a traditional musician, is among the artistes on the performance lineup, alongside Audia Intore and Paccy Nyirantwari and a surprise musical legend of the genre. The event will be happening once every month and at the same venue as organizers look to make it more entertaining to their audience. “We want to make sure the event has good coordination and has plenty of innovations edition after edition and I believe we can achieve it,” he added. The event will be all about Gakondo music, but organisers said they have reserved a non-traditional music segment where they can invite either a secular musician, comedian or poet to perform to make the gala goers more entertained. For the first edition, R&B singer Peace Jolis is expected to perform in this section. The event will start from 7pm and entrance is Rwf 5000.

Lifestyle

Local artistes gear up for traditional music gala