Trombone pieces and concerto

[titusviola]

My name is Ogunyemi Titus Oladimeji, I am violist from third world country of Nigeria, west Africa. I have some wonderful trombonists friends that are looking trombone pieces and concertos for trombone and orchestra. Please anybody with old pieces should kindly inform me. Also, we are seriously in need of lovely pieces for orchestra, brass orchestra, wind orchestra, and string orchestra. We have very limited access to the internet and cost of printing is high.

Below are pieces of information about how I became a violist and what I have done in the past, present and future.

MY PROFILE



As many of the great violists in the world started their career as a violinist, then again, Titus Ogunyemi emerged conventionally, as a violist to be reckoned with in Nigeria. By his own admission, he fell into music during his childhood by divine inspiration from music rendered by his church ( Christ Apostolic Church , Itire Zonal Headquarters) choir in the early 80’s. His father being a lover of music has never allowed anything to hinder him from arriving to the church earlier, along with members of his family, in order to be part of the choir’s call to worship. “It was during one of the choir renditions that he decided to be a chorister whenever the opportunity comes”, Titus says.



In 1986, after the church authority announced the newly accredited Junior Choir, he decided to be part of the group, along with his immediate younger brother. They were among those selected after various trainings and tests. While attending rehearsals and choir classes, he was introduced to recorder, percussion instruments, piano and trumpet. But was finally, introduced to violin after he graduated into the church main choir on merit. Titus’ music director (Pastor Dr. Kolawole Sonaike) introduced to the newly hired violin teacher, Kehinde Davies (presently, Concert Master MUSON symphony orchestra) who properly taught him the violin- and the rest, as they say, is history. “I so much appreciate and love the new violin teacher, because he is friendly, brilliant, generous and kind”, Titus recalls.



Even though his teacher encouraged him to consider the viola, as violists are very rare at the time, Titus wanted to remain violinist just like some of his colleagues. Because violin has gained more public awareness and a violist might be considered as an unsuccessful violinist looking for a hiding place. The then hired brass teacher of the choir, Mr. Tope Phillips and friends borrowed a viola from one of the churches around and gave it to me so as to solidified my interest in the instrument (viola). During this period, Titus Decided to practice the viola, most especially, he decided to work so hard so as to get used to he size of the instrument, C (alto) clef and strings as he was preparing for his debut on the newly discovered instrument. Titus finally, decided to focus on the viola and auditioned by Louise Jones, (British foremost violinist, Director/ Conductor) for the MUSON (Musical Society of Nigeria) orchestra, he was aged 22.



For someone like Titus who, up to that point, had been studying engineering along with music, Lagos was tough. “It was new and challenging to practice everyday. I remember practicing late in the night in the church as there was no quiet place with regular power supply. Titus gradually settled in, however, and, by the time he gets used to the situations, was playing for up four hours a day.



His hard work paid off. In 2007, he was appointed principal viola of the MUSON Symphony Orchestra but still Titus pushed himself to apply for music scholarship (a 2 year diploma course), proudly, sponsored by some local and international companies in collaboration with MUSON. “You don’t apply for such academic programme for pleasure or fun, but because you want to learn more from professionals and experienced teachers and other students”. He is currently major on viola under the tutelage of Mr. Amoah.



In 2008, Titus” determination was rewarded when he performed the Telemann’s viola concerto in G with the prestigious MSO in MUSON Centre, Lagos . The knock-on effect has been invitation from President of English Viola Society, Louise Lansdown (Associate professor of viola, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester ) during the lunching of the English Viola Society in April, 2008. In late 2007, he was also appointed to be the Orchestra/ Band Leader of the Choir and Orchestra of his Church ( Christ Apostolic Church )



Success has not, however, gone to the head of this self motivated and enthusiastic Nigerian violist. He is seriously working on more standard viola pieces, teaching and assisting young classical instrumentalists. He hope to see talented Nigerians making a global impact in the area of classical music performance and composition making use of the local tunes as the theme. And developing the act of string playing in all over Nigeria whereby there would be various state orchestras..



For now, though he’s happy to continue what he’ doing and when he’s not working, relaxing with his family, friends and members of his string quartet, (Golden String Quartet), the group that has raised the level of string playing and performances to a reasonable standard, home and away.





HOW IT ALL STARTED

There is no way one will talk about classical music without mentioning the
church. Churches here in Nigeria are the pioneers in developing music most
especially, classical music. Majority of the musicians in Nigeria started from
church and this has really contributed to the improvement of music. My church (
Christ Apostolic Church ) has been a regular and active pioneer among other
churches

I was inspired and motivated to join the choir when I heard them singing or
performing during the church service.

I started my music career in the church as member of the junior choir, at the
age of 12 (twelve), in the year 1989. At the commencement of the choir, we were
taught rudiment of music though most of us did not really understand the stuff
at the initial stage but because of our personal interest and the support of
our parents we endured the period .Parents see it as thing of joy and pride to
have their child/children as member(s) of the junior choir .This is due to the
benefits enjoyed by the choir members in their various fields of life, such as
motivating the young ones to study and develop .

I was later promoted to the senior (main) choir in 1991 after being tested by
executives and leaders of the choir. It was a great challenge to me and my
friends that were promoted to along with me to the choir because we can hardly
read music scores and we were not that tonal. The style I adopted then was to
listen and memorize hymn tunes played on one of our local radio stations (radio
Lagos ), on Sunday evening called Sunday night at the Organ. This will enable
me
to sing the treble part or melody during the choir practice because sight
reading and singing is still a challenge to me. But I was able to get over it
due to my curiosity, persistence and regularity at the choir practices and
trainings.


HOW I STARTED INSTRUMENT PLAYING


The first instrument we were introduced to was the plastic recorder and we
occasionally performed with it during annual choir festivals in the church
auditorium. I could remember that the first music we performed with the church
choir and orchestra was G.F Handel’s “Zadok the priest” .Though it was
not hundred percent neat but we were exposed to the real world of performing
classical music.

After that period, I was introduced to drumming by one of the choir leaders,
now evangelist Dairo (leader of the junior choir). He taught me and my friends
how to beat the local drum called “Agbamole”. It was made with wood and
covered with animal skin, some how similar to the Conga. But the only
difference is that the drummer(s) will have to sit on a chair to play the local
drum. The drums come in a set of three, the bass (the biggest), mid (tenor) and
high (treble). They can be played by a single drummer, two or three drummers
depending on the skills of the individual drummer. As a young guy in music
world I learned a lot from these drums .Those things I learnt include rhythm,
tempo and beat. It was not quite long that I was introduced to the drum set due
to my interest in the church band.

MY INTEREST IN VIOLIN

I had wanted to learn the violin at my tender age but the available violin
teacher as at then said I had a very short hand and that my palm was not wide
enough to play the instrument. The issues were the unavailability of good
violinists, teachers and violins of various sizes. Violin as an instrument came
into limelight in late 80s; it was not a very popular instrument, likewise the
other members (viola and cello) of the same family.

I never allowed my dream to die despite the challenges I was facing trying to
lay my hands on instrument of my dream, Instead I decided to preoccupy myself
with singing the treble part in the choir and learning the piano.

The period of learning to play the piano was the most challenging moment of my
life in the church choir. The church has an upright piano which was bought in
late 70. This piano used to be caged because the people in charge thought that
children might damage it if they were allowed to use it for practicing. Few of
us that have the zeal for playing the piano had to walk some kilometers before
getting to church so as to have access to the piano. But it was sometimes very
unfortunate that most time we got to church and found out that the piano had
been locked and chained. Though I was able to play some pieces on the piano
with the help of the keyboard but I could have gone far on it if not for the
fact that I could not afford to buy either the piano or the electronic
keyboard. I also had a kiss with the mouth- piece of the trumpet but I do not
remember much about the instrument now.

Few years later, the church authority appointed a new music director (Pastor
Kolawole Sonaike) . He was the pioneer and founder of the Orchestra in my
church, he was inspired by God and his friend who is the Music Director of
Apostolic Faith choir and Orchestra (Rev David Aina) .The Apostolic Faith
church was the only church that gave classical instruments more awareness
because of the inputs from the Western countries. Churches came from so many
places in Nigeria to attend their musical concerts annually in order to be
motivated while watching various instruments being played.
The new music director used his personal money to purchase various instruments
for the church and also hired teachers from various groups. He did that in
order to make the learning of instruments easier and affordable to members of
the choir/church who were interested in learning any of the musical
instruments.


I started to learn violin playing in 1992, along with some of the newly
promoted members of the junior choir to the main choir. My first violin teacher
was a young man from one of the braches of my church. We used to have the class
in the night ( 10pm -5am ) and those who could not come in the night were
allowed to come in the morning and close in the evening. Because the teacher
was a medical student with so many commitments during the day .We passed what
ever he taught us in the night to those coming in the day though we might not
be as perfect as the teacher but we (students) made sure the class kept going
with faith in God.
We were up to 10 (ten) students at the beginning of the class but some dropped,
...majority of the students that stopped coming to the class were females .Most
of
them were hindered by domestic work at home, education and some other reasons,
I
can call those reasons “factors affecting string playing in Nigeria” or
“challenges of being a female string Player in Nigeria”. It was not up to a
year that the violin teacher left but out of courage the music director hired
another violin teacher, Kehinde Shofuye. He was a very good violinist and
talented musician. He taught us so many things about the violin and some other
aspects of music. He will occasionally invite us to concerts in order for us to
be motivated and to see violin playing in action. We started playing in other
churches and other concerts both in the church and outside the church premises.

HOW I STARTED PLAYING THE VIOLA

Shifting from violin playing to viola playing was not an easy thing for me
because I had to battle with interpretation of musical notes on the alto clef,
balancing the weight of the viola with my shoulder and chin,
stretching/extension of my fourth finger, reproduction of tones, speed and
others.
It all started when one of the Anglican churches ( Christ Church ) in my state
was in need of more violists for their concert. Therefore my violin teacher
advised me to shift to viola. I learned the viola in less than two weeks
because the date of the concert was very close. I was just very fortunate that
most of the music we were to perform then was written in key of D major so this
made my learning process easier. The music we were practicing then was G.F
Handel’s “Ode for saint Cecilia’s day”. After so many practices, the
concert went well and I was very happy to have been invited to play with the
good instrumentalists and my teachers.

I also played in the string quartet directed by my second violin teacher
(Kehinde shofuye) “De lamp string quartet” and so other groups. I have also
performed with my church and orchestra on so many occasions. I was also very
fortunate to learn from a British female violinist who came to Nigeria to
perform .She also decided to stay in Nigeria but after some months she left to
London for some reasons best known to her. I learned a lot from her and
together we performed the Handel’ Messiah with choir and orchestra. She also
invited other members of her string quartet to Nigeria and I was introduced to
the violist but it was very unfortunate that I spent very little time with her
violist before they went back to London .

Presently, I am with a string quartet formed by I and friends in 2003.This is
very promising group with its members playing a vital role in the string
playing in Nigeria .
I cannot also do without singing tenor in my church choir every Sunday because
that is the parts of the way I can appreciate and praise God. I also love the
timbre of the tenor part.

I hope I have been able to give you the required information about how I
discovered classical music and viola. Please let me if you are need of further
information.