Brass band music comes alive

Saturday, May 24, 2008 (The Mirror Pg 46)
By Rebecca Kwei
IT was a brass band nostalgia in Agona Swedru when the town hosted the launch of the Kasapreko National Brass Band Competition last week.
Like a street carnival, brass bands and masqueraders from Agona Kwanyako, Agona Swedru and Winneba paraded through some principal streets of Swedru and converged on the lorry park for the event, which was chaired by the acting President of the Agona Nyakrom Traditional Area, Nana Botwe II.
In times past, brass band music was very popular in the Agona towns but one does not hear much of it any longer.
The competition, the first of its kind which will be held annually as a national cultural festival, is to revive brass band music in Ghana and generate interest and patronage in it, thereby creating employment for all those involved.
According to Mr Kofi Yankah, the CEO of Dateline Marketing Limited, organisers of the programme, for this year the competition would involve five brass bands from the Western, Central, Greater Accra and Volta regions.
Regional cultural officers would register all the brass bands in the regions, from which the best five would be chosen, he said.
Consequently, 20 bands from the four regions would then compete at the Swedru Sports Stadium on July 5, 2008.
The overall winning group will receive a set of instruments, cash, a certificate and products of the Kasapreko Company Limited, the title sponsors of the competition.
Mr Yankah said the guiding spirit behind the competition was fairness, transparency and professionalism and that people from MUSIGA, the School of Performing Arts, the National Dance Ensemble and the University of Education, Winneba would be invited to be the judges.
In his welcoming address, the Agona West Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Ben Mensah, noted that brass band music had almost died out in the Swedru area.
He said he was happy that the competition had been instituted and expressed the hope that the event could be turned into an annual cultural festival which would attract tourists from all over the world.
He reminisced over how the Agona Kwanyako Brass Band used to play in London on some occasions and said he wished that brass bands would be revived to perform at functions.
The Marketing Manager of Kasapreko, Mr Andrew Akolaa, said the company decided to be part of the brass band competition because it shared in the objectives of the competition, which were to revive and sustain one of Ghana’s best cultural assets — brass band music.
He pledged Kasapreko's continued support for the competition.
The Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Mr S. K. Boafo, launched the competition.