Pianist From Ghana Opens The Lyceum Series

by Richard Veit

Guest artist William Chapman Nyaho, a Ghanaian-American pianist, will present a Lyceum Series recital at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30, in Roxy Grove Hall.
His program, "Piano Music of the African Diaspora," will begin with Variations on an Egyptian Folksong by 20th-century Egyptian composer Gamal Abdel-Rahim, followed by Talking Drums by contemporary Nigerian composer Joshua Uzoigwe.
The next work, "Earthbeats," is part of Six Dialects in African Pianism by Chapman Nyaho's countryman, Ghanaian composer Gyimah Labi.
Chapman Nyaho also will perform "Deep River" from 24 Negro Melodies by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, known for his trilogy, The Song of Hiawatha.
Three African American composers will be represented during the recital - Robert Nathaniel Dett, Margaret Bonds and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Chapman Nyaho will play Dett's In the Bottoms Suite, Troubled Water by Bonds and Perkinson's Scherzo for Piano. Perkinson, who was named in honor of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, serves as principal conductor and coordinator of performance activities at the Center for Black Music Research.
Chapman Nyaho has performed in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and in cities throughout the United States. He has released a compact disc SENKU, featuring music by composers of African descent.
The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor University School of Music at 710-3991.
The Lyceum Series is funded annually through the generosity of the Meadows Foundation of Dallas.