ENTERTAINMENT: Award winning Ugandan band performs at classical music festival in Swiss

An award-winning Ugandan band by the name Brass for Africa joined other global groups at the Verbier Festival to showcase their brilliant talent.

Held in the glorious Swiss Alps, this stunning setting plays host to the very best in the world of classical music and its rising young talent.

A very positive experience according to Kidega Brian, a band member: “People are appreciating our performances and are so welcoming and the environment is very beautiful. We are like, this is a new home to say and it’s just very nice.”

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The Brass for Africa #EuroTour2022 group leaves Uganda tonight, flying to their first tour destination – The Netherlands!

If you haven't already, make sure to check out their epic upcoming 3-week tour line-up here: https://t.co/eonc81LBo8 pic.twitter.com/liQktzYsaG

— Brass for Africa (@BrassforAfrica) July 2, 2022

Music is an incredibly powerful tool to engage and transform and Brass for Africa uses music to champion our four strategic goals of; workplace readiness, community empowerment, disability inclusion and gender equality.

“We have to present ourselves and we are representing Uganda and Africa at large and also the students that we go out there and we teach music and life skills who are very, very much inspired by us, and they know that our teachers are in Switzerland and they are doing a wonderful thing to represent us. It’s just amazing“, Kidega adds.

African representation

The NGO’s musicians, who come from underprivileged backgrounds, are also music and life-skills teachers. Brass for Africa is part of the festival’s UNLTD series, which aims to shine a spotlight on emerging musical talent.

“Brass Africa is a non-profit organisation and it’s it delivers music and life skills to over 2000 children and young people in Africa, Uganda, Rwanda and Liberia. So we have music, all of us who have been playing here, we music and life skills teachers and we teach every week“, Nabakooza Sumayya explains.

They work in partnership with community-based organisations, and our local team of teachers are all African and alumni of the programmes themselves.