16th November, 2019
By Harrison Iyoha
It was a night of bliss and splendour as guests were treated to quality classical music at the first-ever Afri-Classical concert series held on 13th November at the Terra Kulture Arena, Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The evening started with the CEO of Vesta Violins and The Vesta Orchestra, Rosalyn Aninyei welcoming everyone present to an evening of great music and thanking them for coming out to support the orchestra.
She went on to thank the owner of the Terra Kulture Arena, Bolanle Austen-Peters for welcoming the orchestra with open arms and allowing them to premiere in her theatre.
The 21-man orchestra, conducted by Kehinde Oretimehin treated the audience which consisted of both Nigerian and foreign HNIs, to beautiful renditions from African music greats such as Fela Sowande and Fela Kuti’s “Akinla”, Bobby Benson’s “Taxi Driver”, Victor Uwaifo’s “Joromi”, Eleazar Arinze’s “Nike Nike”, Victor Olaiya’s “Baby Jowo”, Bode Afolabi’s “Eniyan”, Prince Nico Mbarga’s “Sweet Mother”, Adedeji Adetayo and Seun Owoaje’s “Erinlakatabu”, and a number of Kehinde Oretimehin’s compositions such as “Ogo ni fun Baba”, “Are you willing” and “Magbagbemi”.
Carl Maria von Weber’s “Symphony 1” was also rendered to give the foreign HNIs a feel of home.
The night ended with a rousing standing ovation from an obviously satisfied audience as they savoured an encore of “Magbagbemi”.
See images from the event below:
Photo credit: Kelenna Ogboso