The Garth Prince Winter Newsletter 2013

7/29/2019 The Garth Prince Winter Newsletter 2013

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In This Issue:

the

Garth PrinceWINTER NEWSLETTER 2013

My first Artist inResidence

Meet local (andinternational)African Author

Edmonton-based

award-winning

childrens author,

Tololwa Mollel

BecomingCanadian

After four years in

Canada, I am

finally starting to

consider myself

A N A F R I C A N I N T H E S N O W

When more than

230 Elementary

students sing my

African tunes


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THE GARTH PRINCE NEWSLETTER WINTER 2013

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Recent AchievementsI remember a quote from when I worked in the

corporate world

Awards are not the most important things, but

they certainly let you know youre heading in theright direction.

Cultural Diversity in the Arts AwardThe City of Edmonton established this award, through

the Edmonton Arts Council, to recognize artists from

all parts of the world who enrich Edmontons cultural

scene. I am happy to inform you that this award, to me,

comes with a $7500 payment! This will recoup about

75% of the costs related to releasing my first album.

Music Awards NominationMy debut album has just been nominated for:

Best R&B/Soul Recording

in the 2013 Edmonton Music Awards.

Unfortunately there is no World Music category.

Alberta Small Towns Rock!I have had a great opportunity to improve my winter

driving. My most recent shows have all been out of

town. I was in Barrhead, Wainwright and

Days/Strome. All the concerts were sold out.

My band and I had a great time together.

SMALL TOWNS = BIG WELCOME!

About Our Live ShowGreat show last night. Very enjoyable evening.

Denis Chalifoux (audience member)

Super Entertainment!

Barrhead Arts Council

It was a very enjoyable night of African music.

THE RIGHT ANGLECustom Framing and Design

(Concert Sponsor)An article from The Barrhead Leader

the towns local newspaper.


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Meet a Friend, Mentor and Partner in the ArtsTololwa Mollel

In the months that followed, Tololwa and I

started to explore possibilities. My vast

experience with African folk music, and his

stories: a perfect match. We then collaborated

for a summer program at Edmontons Africa

Centre.

When it came time for me to do an

Artist-in-Residence, I knew a Story

Performance would be the best way to

introduce students to Africa.

I asked Tololwa to partner with me by coming

in and doing the narration at the concert with

the students. They were absolutely thrilled to

meet not only an African musician but also an

African author, all in the same week!

Subira SubiraA book by Tololwa Mollel

I chose this story as the concert

theme for my first Artist-in-

Residence because I simply love

the song Subira Subira which

you can find right at the back of

the book. Story and song have

always been such great partners.

It was my great pleasure to

strengthen that bond for this story

and performance.

Tatu finds it hard to get along with her

younger brother Maulidi. Her quest to turn

him into a better person leads her on an

enchanting adventure that includes

meeting a mysterious spirit-woman and

a lion!

My 3-year-old daughter attended the

concert and I took the time to read her the

book after she saw the concert. She hasnt

stopped singing Subira Subira since!

In the summer of 2012, I received an invitation

from Jan Selman, drama professor at the

University of Alberta. She was working with

Tololwa and a few other professional actors and

a musician on ADISI Storyhouse.

This is an ongoing story performance/theatre

series based on Mollels books and stories.

I was asked to work as composer and African

music consultant on From Lands of the

Night, Tololwas new African tale soon to be

published. This venture started the working

relationship between Tololwa and me. It also

introduced us to our current accompanist,

Karen Porkka, who was part of Storyhouse.

Tololwas story performance project was a

major inspiration for me.


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Resources for YouJambo Bwana

Translation: Hello Sir. How are you? Very fine!

Foreigners, you are welcome! In our Kenya, there is no problem.

E-mail me at [email protected] to get a free mp3 version, which I sing as a draft.This enables anyone to learn the song, whether you use sheet music or not!

You can also substitute Kenya with Africa.

ARTS & CRAFTS: SHAKER BRACELETS!Supplies:

Pipe cleaners, bells, assorted beadsInstructions:

Hand out one or two pipe cleaner(s) per student. Studentscan adorn their pipe cleaner(s) with bells and beads as

they please. Help twist the pipe cleaner(s) closed aroundstudents wrist.

Wear the bracelet(s) when performing an African song!


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Becoming Canadian eh?After years of concerts and workshops for

schools across Canada, I planned my first

complete Artist-in-Residence program.

The basic structure of the initial program:

1. Teachers receive music and arts & craft

instructions ahead of time. Students start to lear

the lyrics and melodies before I arrive.

2. When I arrive, I spend the week introducing

movement and African performance techniques

Our goal is to put on a concert at the end of the

week.

3. My accompanist and fellow musician Karen

and Tololwa as storyteller and story performanwriter arrive later in the week. We introduce th

African story well work with. Students learn ho

the music they perform will complement the

narration done by Tololwa at the concert.

Changes for future programs: We have since

introduced the option for schools to bring in

Tololwa as storyteller and story performance

writer for the whole week as well. This enriches

the experience for students and creates more

opportunities for engagement with the story.

Tololwa gets students to know the story inside

out, through a bit of storytelling on their part,

under guidance. He then leads them to create

their own sound and dramatic effects for

performance. He does this while Garth works

intensely with students in alternate groups.

My most memorable moment: After the

concert, a parent came to me with tears in her

eyes. She said: We only see the dark side of

Africa on television. If only we could see more

of the beauty the children showed us today!

Our students thoroughly enjoyed working

with Garth, and even though the concert is

over, I can still hear students singing the song

in our hallway! Mr. Sheldon Durstling, a

teacher at Lynnwood Elementary.

After four years in Canada, I am starting tothink of myself as Canadian, not African.

I love my roots, but there are things about this

cold country that make me feel right at home.

I think these are a few hints that I am

internalizing rather well:

1. Based on the response I get from new

acquaintances: (Apparently) I now sound like I

was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta.(I do however typically learn accents rather

quickly. Some guess its because I speak for a

living and my music background makes me

more sensitive to inflections in language).

2. The big change for me is going from I to

we. I am referring to my family, my band and

the team of professionals I work with.

In complete isolation I could certainly say, I

am from Africa, but since the good people

who I refer to in my introductions and who

always surround me, are all from Canada,

I find it better to say:

WE are from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

3. I have been to an NHL game and a curling

game. Does that count?

Artist-in-Residence


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Next Issue: Meet the band

Building a band that plays African music in

Edmonton Alberta has been one of the best

challenges I have endured

Okapi Jambo is the result.

Meet some talented Canadians and find out

how they learnt to play African music.

African Proverb.

WWW.GARTHPRINCE.COM

E-mail: [email protected]

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/PRINCEGARTHMUSIC

WWW.TWITTER.COM/PRINCEGARTH


If you want to go fast go alone.

If you want to go far go together.

Something Personal: I unintentionally lost more than ten pounds in the month of January!I think it was a combination of adding vegetable juicing to my diet and frequent upbeat concerts.

I must say I have no complaints about losing the weight, but I certainly dont want to lose anymore. These Canadian winters have made me quite fond of my flab!

Garth Prince is an Edmonton based, Award-winning African singer.

He is originally from Namibia and moved to Canada in 2008.

To receive a digital version of Garths newsletters (only four per year), please

submit to the mailing list on Garths home page at:

WWW.GARTHPRINCE.COM

Prince Garth Music a.k.a PriGM: All Rights Reserved

The Garth Prince Winter Newsletter 2013

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