An Evening With James Varrick Armaah

I am Kofi Marten, a Dutch pianist/organist with a special interest in Ghanaian choral music. Together with five choir masters of Ghanaian choirs I am organizing “An Evening With James Varrick Armaah” in Amsterdam on 18 August 2018. A very special concert!

How can you help?
We want to offer this concert for free to our audience. However, organizing a concert of this nature costs money. We hope to fund part of our project with donations through this crowd funding campaign.

We are looking for € 1.100 to cover the costs for the venue and printing posters/flyers. Any donation is welcome. If you donate € 100 or more we will arrange a meet and greet with Mr. Armaah after the concert on 18 August. Please give generously!

Ghanaian choral music
In 2009 I got to know Ghanaian choral music when I started playing the organ in the church in Amsterdam where Gye Nyame Choral Singers, directed by John Kobina Nkaebi, were performing. I was immediately caught by this beautiful, positive and danceable style.

After my first encounter with the music I started to play along with the choir. On the internet and through social media I looked for the composers of this wonderful music. Gradually I got to know many of them. I started to record the music and to publish my recordings on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/kofimarten.

James Varrick Armaah
In 2016 I got in touch with the most famous composer of the style, James Varrick Armaah, who also is conductor of the world-class Ghanaian choir Harmonious Chorale. James wrote the famous song "Oye" (which is now known to Ghanaians all over the world) in 2009 at the age of 25 and has written many other anthems, hymns and danceable tunes.

Want to listen to James’s music?
If you’d like to hear James’s music, listen to this live performance of Harmonious Chorale conducted by James (“Oye” is the last song on this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWqEvPdUfY&t=74s.

Visits to Ghana
At the invitation of James, I visited Ghana for a Christmas concert in 2016. On this concert I performed music by James and others with Harmonious Chorale. On King´s Day 2018 I returned to Ghana for another show with Harmonious Chorale, at the occasion of the festivities for King´s Day organized by the Dutch Embassy in Accra.

Thank you
As a thank you for our friendship and the great time I had during my visits in Ghana, I decided to invite James Varrick Armaah over for a visit to the Netherlands. We offer him this concert as a sign of our appreciation. Feel free to come and enjoy the concert. We are sure it will be a great event!