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Uganda: Brookhouse School Produces Artistes
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New Vision (Kampala)
6 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Joseph Kariuki
Kampala
THE air reverberated with his melodious voice filling the packed conference room. His music was used the world over as a rallying point for a return to peace in a country that had turned into a monster state baying for its own people's blood.
Every morning during the post-election violence in Kenya all radio and television stations in Kenya, as well as the British Broadcasting Corporation played his Swahili music that called Kenyans to be patriotic and live peacefully. Many said the song had replaced the Kenya national anthem.
This is Eric Wainana, the king of benga music, a fusion of rhythm and blues and African beat. It was Wainana's music that welcomed guests to Crane Conference Room at Serena Hotel to a night of splendour. Most would-be-parents of Brookhouse International School will remember this night as one of sheer musical talent by the students of the school.
Most parents expected the usual didactic lecture by the headteacher, John O'Connor, but they were obviously not ready for a night that would display artistic style unrivaled in the professional music world.
Brookhouse is a high cost school that targets diplomats, business executives and many who are wealthy. It is probably the only school that has invested heavily in training students in the performing arts.
To strengthen their newly-created music academy, the school has invested heavily in a new ultra-modern auditorium that the school head claims is among the best in sub-Saharan Africa. To inspire the-would be musicians, Brookhouse spared no costs to get the best professional musician, Eric Wainana, to train her students.
To get Wainana to be a teacher at the school was no mean feat, said O'Connor, but it showed how serious the school takes performing arts. Wainana holds a masters degree in Music from the famous Barklee College of Music in the USA.
"I recently joined Brookhouse to be part of the creation of the Brookhouse Academy of Performing Arts. I have been in the performing arts industry for a while and I have come to firmly believe that education is central to the development of a flourishing music industry," said Wainana, whose recently launched album Twende (Let's go) is doing very well on Kenyan music charts.
O'Connor believes that students should be encouraged to pursue the arts. He says although the school stresses academic excellence, the children have other co-curricular activities that they do well.
To prove to the parents that students have enormous musical talent, 'The Moipei Sisters', a triplet trio music group who are students at the school, sang several numbers that left parents longing for more. The sisters, who are on a full scholarship at the school as a result of their musical talent, are also Unicef child ambassadors.
"We have been signing since we were eight years old. The school has helped us in training and we are in the good hands of Mr. Wainana, a world renowned musician," said the Moipei sisters, who are gearing up for the release of their first album soon.
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The high cost school has students from 43 countries, with most students coming from Kenya, Uganda and the UK.
Unfortunately, the fees structure at the school shows that ordinary parents may not make it to the prestigious school. A one-year-old child pays sh21m per year to be able to enjoy education in the schools. A nine-to-10 year-old pays sh34m per year, a fee that most ordinary Ugandans may not afford.
However, Uganda has the second highest number of students at the school, which is located in Langat, a posh estate in Nairobi.
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