BY AGATHA CHUMA IN the hope of catching them young, Vaima Arts Trust — which supports people living with disabilities in the arts, will this Friday host the inaugural Get Together Marimba Festival at St James Academy in Borrowdale, Harare.
The one-day festival is in line with the trust’s efforts to teach young children music and how to play marimba (xylophone wooden keyboard) instruments.
The trust’s chief encouragement officer Kelvin Chikumbirike told NewsDay Life & Style that the festival is meant to teach primary students how to play marimba.
“The Get Together Marimba Festival is open to beginners, novice schools and other young children who are willing to learn about music,” he said, adding that they were targeting private junior schools who have just been introduced to the marimba type of music in their curriculum,” Chikumbirike said.
“We want to expose young children to traditional music and give them a platform to participate in major music festivals. So, with our first edition, we have opened doors to those who want to learn about marimba music.”
Chikumbirike, who is also a music coach, explained that some children fail to get platforms to display their music skills, and the Get Together Festival will act as their podium to perform, see and learn.
“The benefit which comes with learning marimba is that it is an instrument which produces music that we can export. Taking for example Democratic Republic of Congo is exporting rhumba music worldwide, we can export ours too.
“Education begins in junior schools, hence it is of greater importance to teach young schoolgoing children about our distinct music and instruments. Not many people are able to play marimba, that is why we are targeting primary schools at large,” he added.
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