Video Video: Nyundo School of Music opens Axis Mundi Harvest festival

Rwanda’s Nyundo School of Music opened the Axis Mundi Harvest Festival in Revelstoke on Sept. 18 with a great performance in Grizzly Plaza.

Nyundo School of Music performs at Axis Mundi Revelstoke. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Check out the video of this student group who has travelled all the way from Africa for the festival.

Nyundo School of Music performs at the Axis Mundi Festival in Revelstoke on Sept. 18. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Axis Mundi Festival programmer Hugo Rampen was very excited to bring this talented group to this new festival, part of the festival’s focus on musicianship.

The young performers truly impressed the audience with thrilling, unique sounds directly from the contemporary music scene in Africa.

Here’s a description of the Nyundo school’s story from the Axis Mundi Harvest website:

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Nyundo School Road Show (Rwanda)

When Canadians hear the word Rwanda, disturbing images come out of the dark. Haunting memories of news reports of a country enduring a horrific genocide come to mind. As we close our eyes to recall the newscasts, we envision men, women and children literally running for their lives. We recall how Canadian Peace Keeper Romeo Dallaire rallied the remaining team of international Peace Keepers in an attempt to save as many lives as possible. Canada has had a profound connection to Rwanda as a result of one of the worst tragedies in world history, and now Canada shares a new connection to the country, through cultural preservation and a musical renaissance created by the education of Rwandan youth, thanks to a most remarkable man.

This Canadian connection of healing flows through a quiet, and gifted gentleman named Jacques Murigande. Jacques and his family were refugees of ethnic violence, who made their journey of survival through Burundi and to Ottawa. As a teenager in Ottawa, Jacques would become a guiding light and role model in the refugee community. Jacques would step beyond that community, as his skills as a musician grew. He became a national touring musician and bandleader, eventually receiving the 2005 JUNO Award for World Music Album of the Year, as part of a unique project called “The African Guitar Summit”.

The Mighty Popo is his stage name. His music is the fusion of traditional Rwandan melodies and lyrics, with the reggae and blues he cut his teeth on in the clubs of Ottawa. It’s a very Canadian blend of the multi-ethnic music community found in all the major urban centres across the country, a country The Mighty Popo has crossed many times on national tours, along the way helping countless charities and causes raise money and awareness through his gift of music.

Popo’s music festival experience in Canada inspired him to hatch a plan of developing a Canadian style music festival back in Rwanda. With the guidance of various festival directors in Canada, Rwanda’s KigaliUp Festival was born in 2010, and unknowingly, The Mighty Popo was laying the foundation for himself as a music educator in the very country his family was forced to run from.

In 2014 The Mighty Popo quietly checked out of the Canadian music scene, and with the support of the Rwandan government, began the task of establishing the first public music school in Rwanda. Located in Nyundo in the Rubavu district of Western Province, the Nyundo School of Art and Music encourages confidence and musical expression. It supports professional development, enhancing capacity and transferable skills, while supporting existing traditional music and musical instrumentation, in all aspects of the Rwandan music industry.

Students are encouraged to cultivate new ideas built on existing traditions and to broaden their scope and widen their horizons. Young women and men are recruited from across all the nation’s provinces through a rigorous audition process. Successful entry into the school’s program requires a passion for music, a curiosity for Rwanda’s musical history, and a yearning to explore a world of music genres.

Axis Mundi Harvest Festival is honoured to be able to showcase a group of hand picked and exceptionally talented students from Nyundo at this year’s festival in Revelstoke. Working in partnership, Axis Mundi has also coordinated career development opportunities for the Nyundo students and The Mighty Popo, with additional performances and workshops slated for Selkirk College in Nelson, and Douglas College in Vancouver.

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