Christopher Oyesiku

CHRISTOPHER OYESIKU dazzled the Nigerian elitist music caucuses with hisextraordinary bass voice and God-gifted talent for well over six decades. Hisoutstanding performances brought smiles, laughter, joy, and admiration to the facesof his faithful patrons, patronesses, and audiences. Nigeria has never seen norheard anything like Oyesikus magnifi cent voice that is best described as bel cantoand basso profundo. With this sonorous voice, he always leaves an impeccableand memorable impression on his ardent afi cionados. He has performed beforethe cream of Nigerian society, African nations, dignitaries, and indeed, theRoyal Family in Great Britain. Oyesiku is a professionally trained classical basssinger, choral conductor extraordinaire, music educator, erudite scholar, concertpromoter, concert manager, concert connoisseur, and broadcaster. From a periodthat spanned 1963 to 1997, Oyesiku single-handedly directed four magnifi centchoirs: the Lagos Musical Society Choir, the Nigerian Broadcasting CorporationChoir, the Oyo State College of Education Choir, and the University of IbadanChoir. He trained these choirs to perform at a very enviable lofty standard thatalways leaves their audiences screaming for encore at the end of every concert. Their performances were consistently eclectic, electrifying, emotive, joyful,impeccable, crisp, energetic, fl awless, and intercultural. This book succinctlyintroduces musicians and enthusiasts to the performance of classical musicin Nigeria through the life and stunning career of Christopher Oyesiku. Hisrepertoire, bass solo recitals, and choral performances are indeed the epitome ofart music concerts in the country. In this book, we can see how art music is taughtand learned, organized, directed, performed, promoted, managed, disseminated,patronized, and preserved by the elitist group in modern day Nigeria. In otherwords, the Christopher Oyesiku concerts are representative of art music decorumin Nigeria, with particular emphasis on the performance practices, and a mirrorthrough which one could examine the ethos of this brand of music in twenty-fi rstcentury Nigeria.GODWIN SADOH is a Nigerian ethnomusicologist, interculturalmusicologist, composer, church musician, organist, pianist,choral conductor, and prolifi c publishing scholar with over90 publications. His compositions have been performedand recorded worldwide. He is the fi rst African to receive adoctoral degree in organ performance from any institutionin the world. Sadoh has taught at numerous institutionsincluding the University of Pittsburgh and the University ofNebraska-Lincoln.