Sunday, February 03, 2008

VOA launches African Music Treasures blog

As a reminder to our blog readers, from an earlier post, for Voice of America's African Music Treasures blog.
The Voice of America (VOA) has launched African Music Treasures, its first weblog (”blog”) designed especially for African music fans around the world. Matthew Lavoie, host of VOA’s popular Music Time in Africa music show, will moderate the blog featuring music from VOA’s extensive and rare African music collection, music commentary, audio clips, bios of interesting musicians, and chats with online participants.
“Our archive is overflowing with rare music from every country in Africa,” said Lavoie. “I’m excited to share it with my fellow enthusiasts,” he added. One of the featured artists on the new blog is Rwandan musician Bizimungu Dieudonne. Dieudonne became a well-known performer throughout Kigali in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was later killed in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Audio clips of Dieudonne favorites, including “Tabara Ryangombe,” a song depicting the struggles of Rwandan youth, are available on the blog.
VOA’s African music archive houses more than 10,000 music titles, including the Leo Sarkisian Library of African Music. Sarkisian, an internationally known musician and ethnomusicologist, amassed the collection during nearly 50 years of traveling in and broadcasting to Africa.
Join African Music Treasures by logging on to http://www.voaafrica.com/ and clicking on the African Music Blog link.
(Source: VOA/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)