Windhoek — Namibia's foremost a cappella group, VM6, will present a live show in the NTN tomorrow evening promising to be one of the highlights on the country's musical calendar this year.

Choral lovers can expect a show of extremely high quality as the group has recently returned from a month-long visit to the USA where they were able to meet and work with some of the best production talent in the world.

Art Life spoke to two members of the group, Vasco Mario and Mark Chizyuka, who were bubbling over with excitement about their experiences in the United States.

They said their visit to the States was the result of two invitations extended to them.

Vasco and Mark explained that the group has been busy with community work for several years with a project known as "Living Positively", which takes them to institutions such as schools, churches, prisons, universities and colleges where they give motivational talks and conduct HIV/AIDS awareness programmes. The Bill Gates Foundation evaluated this project to be one of the six best in the world, and as a result, invited the group to America.

Before they received this invitation they also received an invitation from a US programme called Voluntary Leadership, a project run by the US State Department, normally only inviting people who make a difference in their society.

Vasco and Mark take up the story: "Bill Gates invited us to participate in the programme when he officially launched the website of his "Living Proof" project which consists of all the social responsibility programmes he runs across the world. The launch was attended by 850 people in a theatre in Washington DC where we were the only artists invited to sing on the programme. And we met him personally!"

After the launch, they presented 26 shows in 17 days in three states, Maryland, Virginia and New York. They describe the reception they received from the American as 'amazing."

One of the highlights of their visit was a performance they gave at the Julliard School for the Arts in New York a school where only the most talented students in America are admitted.

"We gave them our full scale show and performed as part of an African History project at the school. We blew them away and they could not understand that we had never received any formal training in singing!" says an excited Vasco.

The next step in their 'American dream,' as they call it, was to audition for a music marketing company called, "Share the Mic."

Says Mark: "We were allowed only five minutes, but this turned into five hours - with the result that they signed us up for one year. This company also does charitable work and each group on their books is partnered with a charitable organisation. We have been assigned to work with a project called "Africa Action" and because we will be doing programmes with them the possibility is strong that we will be travelling extensively in the near future.

"Because all of this happened during the last days of our visit we have been invited to return and to bring along enough new material. So our next CD will be recorded and produced in the United States," he said. They said they were excited about tomorrow's show featuring guest artist, Johné Titus, who is one of the lead singers in Ernst van Biljon's choir, Young Singers of Namibia.

"Fans can expect all the music genres we do, although we do concentrate on a cappella. The show is going to be one of a kind because after this we will be doing only new music," said Vasco.

Admission to the show is N$50 in advance and N$60 at the door. Doors open at 19:00 and the show start at 20:00. For more details call Vasco at 081 283 1557 or Mark 081 217 3546.