It’s been a long time since we last spoke and perhaps I owe you an explanation. The economic challenges of publishing a quality magazine are enormous and the decision on whether or not to continue publishing Classics is one that has dominated our minds here at Art of Music. We have not taken the issue lightly and after much soul searching we have decided to continue publishing an online version while we continue searching for a long term solution. We appreciate your support and encouragement through these tough times.

The good news is that The Art of Music Foundation together with a number of other partners is working hard to put together the first  National Youth Orchestra of Kenya.  Based on the extremely successful El Sistema project in Venezuela, this new institution will see all the best young instrumentalists from Kenya come together to train and perform regardless of their social or economic backgrounds. Also going strong is the pilot music project in Korogocho slums, Ghetto Classics. The youth now have a brass band that is doing us proud! 

This year the world celebrates the bicentenary of arguably the greatest composer for the piano, Frederic Chopin. Leading the celebrations of course is Chopin’s country of birth, Poland which always remained close to his heart,  even after he emigrated to France. The Polish Embassy in Kenya has many events planned throughout the year to honor their beloved child starting with a wonderful concert at the end of May, featuring the pianist Mariusz Dropekal, a celebrated Chopin specialist.

In December, I had the pleasure of attending a little known festival in Nairobi called the Kenya Music and Cultural Festival. The poor step-sister of the Schools Kenya Music Festival that is held every August, this wonderful event has fallen on to hard times. Despite little support from the Ministry of Culture however, the organizers of this festival still managed to put together a marvelous show for those of us who attended this. It is my feeling that this festival that brings together the most amazing music, drama and art from all over Kenya deserves more than being just a postscript on the Ministry’s calendar.


One of Kenyans most endeared composers is Arthur Kemoli and we look at his life in this issue. The  coloratura soprano Doreen Ziegler and our young musician, Dan Onyango remind  us that like in everything else, success in music depends not on talent alone, but on plenty of hard work! Peter Ndung’u tells us some interesting facts about drums that we didn’t know and Ivan Gannaway takes another look at sight reading. We start a new series with Jim Pywell looking at the often misunderstood subject of 20th century music and Gerry Loughran looks at how his music collection has evolved over the years.