For Immediate Release Contact: Barbara K. Laskin
January 9, 2004 Doug Stone
(651) 696-6203

Macalester's African Music Ensemble to Perform Concert Series for K - 12th Graders
Jan. 13 - 15, and Jan. 20 - 22, 2004

St. Paul, Minn - - Macalester College's African Music Ensemble will perform a series of concerts to introduce schoolchildren to African music, Tuesday - Thursday, January 13 -15, and Tuesday - Thursday, January 20 - 22, 2004. The group will present two one-hour performances each day at 10:30 a.m. and again at 12:15 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul. Tickets are $3.00. For more information call (651) 696-6808.

The Ensemble performs traditional African music using a variety of authentic African instruments such as numerous drums in many sizes and shapes, horns or Mmenson, flutes or Atenteben, various bells, rattles, mbiras, gourds and a Xylophone or Gyil.

The ensemble performs music associated with children, special ceremonies, funerals, social commentary, royalty, social dances and entertainment. The special concerts for school children at Macalester College are an African Music Ensemble tradition.

The Ensemble is directed by Sowah Mensah, Macalester music teacher, ethnomusicologist, composer and master drummer from Ghana. He has performed in the U.S., Africa and Latin America and is the director of Sankofa, a Ghanaian folklore and dance ensemble in the Twin Cities.

The group has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio's "Morning Show,"
and has performed and toured in Kansas, Michigan and at colleges and
universities around the Upper Midwest.

Macalester is a private liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,810 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity and service to society.