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Drummer From Ghana Visits John Marshall High School

Photo by Drew Parker Composer Sowah Mensah, center, explains drum techniques Monday to John Marshall High School students Meghan Byrd, left and Alexa Jasinski.

Prior to showcasing their talents during an annual Christmas concert Thursday, John Marshall High School band students got the opportunity to learn about culture and music from a traveling professional.

Sowah Mensah, an ethnomusicologist and composer originally from Ghana, is spending the week at John Marshall to tutor band students before performing with the the group on the African xylophones at their upcoming Christmas concert Thursday evening.

A master world drummer, Mensah taught music in Ghana and Nigeria before taking his current position as a music professor at Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., where he directs the school’s African Music Ensemble.

He is also a professor at the University of Vermont and leads a drum program at the University of Minnesota.

During the visit, funded by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council, Mensah will help band students learn different instruments before they perform one of his original works Thursday.

The music is done on xylophones and that music is not written down but passed down by rote,” said John Marshall band director Tracey Filben. “I think it’s really easy to get caught up in your daily routine of what your surroundings are, so the more we can expose students to other cultures the more accepting and understanding they can be of music, diversity and lifestyles.”

Mensah said learning cultural diversity through music will help students prepare for the future.

“The music young people are learning today is much different than what young people were learning when I came to this country 30 years ago,” Mensah said.

“The world is much smaller now, not only through internet sources but by more people traveling. … Being a musician is this country, it isn’t enough to know only classical or only American music. Young musicians have to be exposed because most colleges cover a variety of music from all over the world. If they only study standard American music, they won’t be able to compete.”

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