The Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) School of Music on Thursday received musical instruments and spare parts worth N20 million from the German Embassy.
The instruments were mostly violins and other spare parts that they could used to repair the society’s other bad musical equipment .
The German Consul-General to Nigeria, Ingo Herbert, said that music should be taken seriously.
He said that music was a very important part of the culture that could be used to unite people all over the world.
“We have been of great support to MUSON for a very long time, and I learnt that classical music is considered to be of great value in Nigeria.
“I am amazed at the number of people that love classical music in the country and play in the orchestra.
“Therefore, for us, it is part of cultural cooperation where we can just really lend our support for it to grow,” he said.
He also said that classical music needed private support for it to help the young ones coming into it.
Also, MUSON’s Vice-Chairman, Louis Mbanefo, said that the society was thrilled to receive the equipment.
He said that the Goethe Institute which is the cultural arm of the German Embassy had been very supportive of MUSON since its inception 34 years ago.
“The cultural arm which is the Gothe Institute provides us with lots of concerts, German musicians and also encourage our locals.
“They used to send their musical directors to us to help train our music students.
“These are developments we are very happy about,” he said.
Manuel Drumminski, a German concert master , who facilitated the purchase of the equipment told NAN that it was quite hard to get good sounds and tones without appropriate musical equipment.
“During my masterclass at MUSON, I met some of the students and saw the conditions of the instruments.
” I promised them that I was going to do something about it.
“As you can imagine, it is problematic to teach students when the materials are not available.
“I asked an official here if we could do something about it. So, I went to my violin-maker and decided to buy some for my students in MUSON.
“It was with the help of the embassy that we were able to ship them into Nigeria,” he said.
NAN reports that the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) was established in 1983.
This was as a result of the commitment and dedication of some distinguished Nigerians and their expatriate colleagues to stimulate the love and awareness of the richness of classical music among Nigerians, especially, Lagosians.
The need for musical training and instruction spurred the establishment of the MUSON School of Music in 1989.
MUSON represents the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in Nigeria and offers ABRSM theory and practical examinations.
MUSON regularly organises concerts for both Nigerian and Western genres.
They used to perform regularly at the annual MUSON Festival and during the society’s concert season.
The MUSON Choir and the MUSON Symphony Orchestra were usually invited to perform outside MUSON’s functions .
