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Organisers of “An Evening with Harcourt Whyte”, which holds from 6pm today at Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja, have thrown the gates open, saying they want as many interested people as possible to come and enjoy the music of the legendary artiste.
“It’s free of charge,” Mrs. Ezinwa N. Okoroafor, Co-ordinator of the Harcourt Whyte Foundation, which is organising the event, told News Express. “We wish to use this medium to invite all lovers of music to the event, which promises to be memorable and refreshing. I want people to enjoy Harcourt Whyte’s music the way my family and I enjoy it,” she added.
The first in a series of efforts by the Foundation to revive and promote Harcourt Whyte’s music, “An Evening with Harcourt Whyte” shall feature four crowd-pulling choirs from three of Nigeria’s six geo-political zones. They include the world-famous Abuja Chorale Ensemble directed and conducted by Barr. Everyman Eleanya, which has performed for President Goodluck Jonathan and also in front of several other distinguished personalities from across the world.
Also set to thrill at the event are the equally popular Achinivu-Harcourt Whyte Choral Association, Arochukwu, Abia State (directed and conducted by Prof. A. Kanu Achinivu, PhD); J. Clef Chorale - University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) directed and conducted by Jude Nwankwo; and University of Port-Harcourt (UNIPORT) Choir directed and conducted by Prof. Onyee Nwankpa. Each of the four choirs is made up of 50 members.
Among important personalities expected to grace the event are Justice Karibi Whyte and Harcourt Whyte’s children and grand children.
Born in Abonema in Rivers State in 1905, Ikoli Harcourt Whyte spent the greater part of his life at Uzuakoli Leprosy Colony in the present Abia State of Nigeria, where he raised a choir that regularly performed his compositions at the Methodist Church Lohum, Uzuakoli.
Before his death in 1977, Harcourt Whyte composed over 300 sacred hymns used in Methodist Church of Nigeria in the then Eastern Nigeria and beyond. Over time, these sacred songs spread and became very popular that it could no longer be compartmentalised or classified as Methodist Church songs as they were widely used in Christian worships across different Christian denominations.
•Photo shows J. Cleff Chorale, one of the groups performing at the event.
