Rebeca Omordia on this year's African Concert Series

A day of special concerts celebrating the rich variety of African classical music took place at the Wigmore Hall on Saturday (5 February). It was part of the fourth African Concert Series, now back with live events throughout the year after having to move online during the pandemic.

No-one is more delighted to be back in the concert hall than the series curator, Rebeca Omordia, the Romanian Nigerian pianist whose curiosity and inspiration launched the African Concert Series in 2019.

‘During that first year we put on 10 live concerts in front of audiences at the October Gallery and the Africa Centre. For the first lockdown in 2020 we streamed pre-recorded concerts from the USA, Nigeria, Hungary and UK with people performing from their homes. The following year we live-streamed from our venues. So it’s good to return to our format of monthly concerts to bring back our live audience.’

Omordia kicked off the 2022 series last month at the October Gallery performing music from her latest CD, African Pianism (which will be released this Friday 11 February), with percussionist Abdelkader Saadoun. She continued her exploration of African piano music in the evening concert at the Wigmore on Saturday. The programme featured Ayo Bankole’s Egun Variations, Akin Euba’s Ora Meta for piano and percussion, Nabil Benabdeljalil’s En attente du printemps and Fred Onovwerosuoke’s 24 studies in African Rhythms. Other highlights included double bassist Leon Bosch’s performances of music written by the South African’s compatriots Allan Stephenson and Grant McLachlan, and the NOK Ensemble from Lagos and Tunde Jegede’s performance of his compositions for kora. 

Each of the three concerts was designed to illustrate a different aspect of African art music. On Saturday morning, Jegede gave a solo kora recital followed by pieces for woodwind by the Ghanaian musician JH Kwabena Nketia and the Egyptian composer Gamal Abdel-Rahim.

The art song recital on Saturday afternoon featured South African baritone Njabulo Madlala, pianist William Vann, violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason and pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason. They performed pieces by South African composers Benjamin Tyamzashe and Milikazi Khumalo alongside traditional works and pieces from the African diaspora by Joseph Bologne and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

For Omordia, establishing this critically acclaimed festival came out of her own journey of musical discovery. Born of a Romanian mother and Nigerian father, she grew up under Ceausescu’s regime in Romania, attending a local music school for gifted children followed by the National Conservatoire in Bucharest. Based on the Russian model of teaching, the conservatoire focused on western classical music so after graduating in 2006, Omordia built up a reputation for her performances of Classical repertoire in recitals and with orchestras.

That all changed when she got a scholarship to complete a master’s degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) and went on to win the 2009 Delius Prize. One of the judges was the RBC principal at the time, Julian Lloyd Webber, who was impressed with her playing. Several years later they became duo partners. While working together, Lloyd Webber asked Omordia a question, sparking the quest which led to her setting up the African Concert Series, of which he is now patron.

‘Julian asked me if I knew anything about Nigerian classical music and my answer was ‘no’. Even though I’d been to Nigeria many times and had family there, I was aware of the traditional music but not the classical music. I had never heard of it, so it was a fascinating process finding out. But once I started investigating, I found an entire network of classical Nigerian composers who had created an art music genre.’

Thanks to social media, Omordia was able to get in touch with composers, who connected her to other composers and musicians. But it was difficult for her to get hold of any music as most scores had never been published. The only published piece she found was Fred Onovwerosuoke’s 24 Studies in African Rhythms. She first heard this type of music while attending the Ghanaian composer’s long-running African and Afro-American Music Festival in St Louis where he’s based.

‘The most difficult thing at first for me when playing African classical music was the rhythms. Fred started singing them to me in the places where he felt I could be more engaging. These were dancing rhythms and he said if the music doesn’t make you feel like dancing you’ve not found the rhythm. From my point of view, it was more complex. My father is from the Igbo tribe and he used to sing traditional music which sounded strange, almost primeval, so I was familiar with that tradition. But for many of the pieces I recorded on my CD, I had to listen to many recordings of traditional songs from different areas to understand the interpretations.’

Each part of Africa has different traditions. For instance, the music of North Africa, with its strong Arab influences, varies from the music of West Africa. In Nigeria alone there are over 200 ethnic groups each with a different language and culture. Omordia says the concept of African art music is very diverse from what we know as classical music with each composer bringing the rhythms and culture of the country they come from. She feels that part of her role is to educate the western world so they can understand how African music needs to be played.

‘On the page the music looks like any classical music, but the accents of the rhythms and phrasing of the melodies are not the same. Phrasing, intonation, rubato are all subtle differences that can make a big change to the character of the music. Once you start investigating the country the composer is from or their particular ethnic group you find that what’s in the score is not necessarily the way it should be played. Fortunately, music is a universal language and African music, with its dance element is very appealing to the ears and it has been very well received by audiences. I’m constantly researching new music by African composers and I’m sure there are hundreds more out there waiting to be discovered.’

You can find out more about the African Concert Series here.

Rebeca Omordia’s CD African Pianism will be released on SOMM Recordings this week (11 February). You can find more information about this CD here.