Friday, August 29, 2008

William Chapman Nyaho Releases “ASA: Piano Music of Composers of African Descent”


[ASA: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent; William Chapman Nyaho, piano; MSR Classics MS1242 (2008)]

William H. Chapman Nyaho was born in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 28, 1958. He was to become a virtuoso pianist, gifted professor of music and dedicated collector and editor of piano music of the African Diaspora. When he was only ten months old his parents returned to their native Ghana with him. He grew up there and graduated from Ghana's Achimota School after studying piano with John Barham. Nyaho received his B.A. in Music from Oxford University in the U.K. After studies in piano at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland, and with Henri Gautier, he earned a Master of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Nyaho studied with David Renner at the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his Doctoral degree in Music.

Dr. Nyaho's website is http://www.nyaho.com/ He is also profiled at AfriClassical.com His credits include a remarkable 5-volume anthology of sheet music published by Oxford University Press, Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora. His first solo piano CD of works of composers of African descent is Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent, Musicians Showcase 1091 (2003). Nyaho's newest recording is ASA: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent; MSR Classics MS1242 (2008). The composers represented on the CD were born between 1900 and 1975 and come from the far corners of the African Diaspora:

Fred Onovwerosuoke (b.1960) Nigeria; STUDIES IN AFRICAN RHYTHM
Robert Kwami (1954-2004) Ghana;JANUARY DANCE
Isak Roux (b.1959) South Africa; AFRICAN JOURNAL
Bongani Ndodana (b.1975) South Africa; FLOWERS IN SAND
Halim El Dabh (b.1921) Egypt; COMA DANCE
Amadeo Roldan (1900-1939) Cuba; PRELUDIO CUBANO
Ludovic Lamothe (1882-1953) Haiti; LA DANGEREUSE
Alain-Pierre Pradel (b.1949) Guadeloupe; POMME CANELLE
Florence Price (1887-1953) USA; DANCES IN THE CANEBRAKES
Wallace Cheatham (b.1946) USA; THREE PRELUDES
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) USA; TOCCATA






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