BP 11203, Niamey, Niger

+227 732 322

Program

Teaching music to children and interested adults. Studies include performance in traditional, popular styles, solo and ensemble (on traditional instruments as well as piano, guitar, strings, trumpet, saxophone, percussion), solfège, music technology. There is an opportunity to experiment with mixing of timbres of traditional and Western instruments, and to discover new possibilities of improvisation in the jazz idiom. The RAPZONE initiative holds informal sessions and concerts.

The Centre de Formation et de Promotion Musicale El Hadji Taya (C.F.P.M.) was founded in 1989 and operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture to promote the traditions of folklore, story-telling and music performance by local musicians/griots. The Centre also encourages modern creative approaches to traditional music styles and performances by its contemporary musicians. It provides a variety of instruments, both Western and traditional for the use of its students and organises competitions and festivals. The campus is open to members of the public, and concerts and presentations are regular features of its program. One distinctive activity is that of bringing in young unemployed people who, after undergoing tests of musical aptitude, are given free instrumental lessons. When they are sufficiently skilled they form small ensembles, and the Centre assists in finding opportunities for professional engagements. A branch system of musical centres ('points musique') is established in the principal towns of Niger to enable musicians to visit schools for workshops in country and desert regions and to help provide immediate access to the instrumental and audio resources of the Centre in Niamey. There are three areas of operation: • Teaching music to children and interested adults. Some stress is laid on the training of future instrumental teachers and future leaders of community music. • Research in ethnomusicology, specifically to conserve and promote the traditional musics and dances of the Republic of Niger and its neighbours, particularly the music of the Peuls, the Tauregs and the Wodaabés, and in the wider sense the musics of the African continent. The Centre has set up a documentation centre of all traditional and modern music of Niger and some material on world music which is available for promotion and research. The collection includes instruments, recordings, films, videos, books, bibliographies, monographs and other research materials. • A resource centre for professional musicians, both traditional and modern. A workshop has been set up to manufacture traditional instruments and to provide maintenance to existing instruments. With assistance from French and Spanish donors a newly equipped state-of-the-art digital recording studio has been established and has begun recording traditional and recently composed works. It enables composers and artists to obtain high-resolution CDs that they can use to promote their works in the various regions of the country.

March 2022