Acclaimed pianist, William H. Chapman Nyaho, will bring the sounds of West Africa to Talbot Theater April 2 at 7:30 p.m. as part of Jubilee. “He connects you to the history and passion of what he’s doing,” Angela Hammerli, coordinator of Jubilee, said.
She also said his music is hard to describe, but it is gorgeous.
Nyaho will hold a workshop at Nicholls April 3 at 10:30 a.m. in which he will discuss the history and influences of African and classical music. He will also talk about life as a professional musician as well as how music is composed.
He was born into a musical family in Washington, D.C. Dec. 28, 1958. He was raised in Ghana, a country in West Africa, where he began playing the piano when he was five years old.
Nyaho left Africa in 1978 to attend Oxford University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in music. He also earned a Master of Music at the Eastman School of Music and a doctoral degree in musical arts from the University of Texas at Austin. Nyaho also studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneva in Switzerland.
Nyaho won the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition and the Ibla Grand Prize International Competition in Italy. Nyaho also received the Distinguished Professor Award and the Acadiana Arts Council Distinguished Artist Award.
Following a four-year residency as a North Carolina visiting artist, Nyaho taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he held the Heymann Endowed Professorship.
He has performed his music, a mix of classical music and African traditional elements, throughout much of southeastern Louisiana and throughout the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean.
Maya Angelou, a family friend and mentor of Nyaho, wrote the liner notes from his first compact disc, “Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent,” which has been critically acclaimed by publications such as Gramophone and Fanfare magazines.
Nyaho has also developed and hosted radio programs such as The Bach Show for KRVS Public Radio in Louisiana.
He was also on the review panel of National Endowment for the Arts, national committees for the Music Teachers’ National Association and College Music Society.
Nyaho compiled and edited a five-volume anthology of piano works by black composers. Oxford University Press published the anthology in 2004.
In order to book Nyaho to perform, Nicholls obtained grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and from the National Endowment for the Arts.
