UA Music Professor's Fellowship in Kenya Brings New Sounds to Faulkner Performing Arts Center

Joseph Muyale Inzai

Professor Caldwell with the Pumwani Boys High School Choir, Nairobi, Kenya

In the summer of 2018, Stephen Caldwell, assistant professor of music, traveled to Kenya as an International Fellow of the American Choral Director's Association. While there, he met with school music programs and lectured at universities, but above all else immersed himself in the music of Kenyan culture. Through several weeks of field work he learned folk songs from various Kenyan tribes, and that of several neighboring countries.

The initial results of that field work will be on display at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center as the UA Collegiate Chorale will present a concert titled, "Kenya Yetu" (Our Kenya).

The concert will feature seven East African pieces, some as arranged by Kenyan musician Joseph Muyale Inzai, and several arranged by Caldwell, himself. He commented, "One of the goals of this concert was to give UA students a glimpse into a different cultural world. For the most part, I taught them the music without traditional notation, as singers in Kenya are largely taught, and as they taught me."

Tickets are available at faulkner.uark.edu.