| dc.description.abstract | The leadership of Kenya Association of Musical Arts
Education
Participants in the Kabarak University Music Festival
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon
Throughout my life, I have always loved Christian music
from early child hood. I began engaging in music
activities, teaching Sunday school and later my fellow
adult colleagues. I have also participated in music
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festival including the famous KIMA music festival in
western Kenya.
As you are aware, God our creator loves music just like
the Bible says, music will continue in heaven when all
other things cease in this world.
I urge mankind to learn to praise God through music.
The Bible records that angels praise and worship God in
music.
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When Christ was born the angels sang praises to the son
of God. It is therefore our duty to praise God always. To
do that, proper identification and exploitation of talent
must take place. This should be followed by adequate
training of people in voice and instruments. History of
music indicates that humans have used various
instruments and voice to to make music. However it is
regrettable that in some occasions people take music
performance simply as a pass time activity. When that
happens, the result is poor performance of music. Those
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who do serious singing have made great impact on the
life of others.
Just like the early Christians did, sacred music have been
used to preach the word of God. I urge Kenyans to take
music seriously. Those involved in playing different
instruments and singing should dedicate there
productive time on this noble cause. This will result in
increasing a culture of performance in Africa. It will help
us to conserve our culture, while at the same time
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enable us to borrow useful practices from the western
world, which furthers our interest in music performance.
Kenyans should not abandon their culture in favor of
western culture. Our music is rich, our melodies are very
good. I am happy to note that there is a move to create
a theory of African music school upon which musical
composition and arrangement shall be established. Both
South Africa and West African music scholars have made
great strides in this research. This too needs to be
emulated by East Africa which is the cradle of mankind. I
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am happy to note that several Kenyans are holding
leading positions in major music bodies like the
international society of music education.
As the patron of Kenya association of musical arts
education, I would like to urge the government to invest
more resources in music education and research. Talents
must be exploited during the early years of a child’s
development.
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I would like to further urge the government to
reconsider her policy of excluding music from the block
of examinable subjects. This is because many teachers
do not concentrate on non-examinable subjects at the
KCPE level. Because of that many students tend not to
choose music at the secondary school level. This
situation further affects choice of music related careers
at the university level.
I am informed that gains made in music development in
past years have been lost due to curriculum changes
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which do not favor music. Revision of curriculum should
consider the central place occupied by music in our
education, political, social, cultural and economical lives
of Kenyans.
The participants who have attended the first music
conference here at Kabarak University have made Kenya
proud. The associates have produced standard journal of
music and will produce the second journal in the next
few months. I urge Kenyans to join Kenya association of
musical arts education so that we can together educate
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Kenyans and enhance standards of musical performance
in the country.
This being an annual event, it is important that we
continue with the culture of performance and music
education activities and not wait until next year.
I take this opportunity to thank all music scholars,
researchers, and choir directors and all singers for
coming to Kabarak to participate in this activity. Kabarak
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University is considering to establish a school of music
studies in the near future.
Therefore with these remarks, ladies and gentlemen I
declare the second Conference for Kenya Association of
Musical Art Education and Festival Officially open.
Thank you and God bless you | en_US |
