MIKE AND CIRU JAMES WITH PHILIP MAINA AT MUTHAIGA

 LIVE REPERTOIRE OF MUSIC IS MAGIC

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (written 4 Feb. 2022

There is nothing like a live performance of music to make one’s heart feel nourished and replenished.

It could be rock, reggae, rhythm & blues, or just plain jazz. This Thursday, February 10^th, from 6pm, it will be music for voice, piano, and clarinet playing mainly classical music that will do the magic.

George Gerwin is not classical; neither is the Kenyan composer, Shaka Marko Lwaki, 22. But both of them have works that have been selected by Mike and Ciru James to be included in a marvelous program that they will be performing together with clarinetist Philip Maina this Thursday at Muthaiga Club.

In the interest of exposing a wider audience to their music, the Club is allowing non-members into the trio’s performance which is a one-off affair.

Yet I had the opportunity to attend a rehearsal of this piano, clarinet, and soprano team recently and got a sweet taste of beautiful music performed in a first-class fashion. I don’t know if Kenya has ever produced a high soprano like Ciru James (nee Gecau). But from the moment she began the concert by singing Fernando Paer’s ‘Beatus Vir’ (Blessed is the Man) in Latin, one was assured that the concert was going to be magnificent.

Accompanied by her partner Mike on piano and Philip Maina on clarinet, this lively piece by the 17^th-18^th century Italian composer (who was a peer of Beethoven, both born the same year) will be a heart-warming introduction to anyone who prefers live music to what you see on YouTube or listen to on your mobile phone.

The concert includes an eclectic repertoire of not just classical pieces set in Latin, but songs that Ciru sings in Spanish, French, German, and English. Some are taken from operas like Gounod’s ‘Je Veux Vivre’ (I want to live) which comes from his ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Others are based on poems like Franz Schubert’s ‘Der Hirt Auf Dem Felsen’ (The Shepherd on the Rock) and Arnold Cooke’s ‘Two songs of Innocence.’

One need not feel intimated by the language barrier that one might assume, since not everyone has a command of all half-dozen languages. But all apprehensions are quickly assuaged first by Mike James who gives delightful introductions to every piece performed, and then by Ciru who not only has the voice of an angel but a theatrical quality about her singing so that cultural boundaries are transcended quickly and effortlessly.

In addition to the composers already mentioned, the repertoire includes a piece by Mozart (‘Adagio’) which we were reminded was also in the movie, ‘Out of Africa’. There are also works by George Macfarren, Harmon Bernberg, Isaac lbeniz and Arnold Cooke.

But it’s in the second part of the performance that Shako Marko’s two pieces will premiere in public. From his Song Cycle, the instrumental piece ‘Love’ comes first with just the clarinet and piano. The second was just composed this year entitled ‘Reveries of an Admirer’ in which the trio reveal to be an excellent Kenyan contribution to their repertoire.

Philip has been playing clarinet since he was 12 and got serious about performing after university. Mike studied music in Scotland first at the Aberdeen College of Music and then in Hungary. After that he taught at Starehe Boys for five years and ISK for several more. And Ciru started in both piano and singing at Alliance Girls under the first Kenyan woman to study music in the UK. “Mulindi King was my teacher after herself being trained by Juliah Moss [who also attended the trio’s rehearsal]. She really transformed music at Alliance,” Ciru told Business Daily.

“It was under her that I joined the choir and an eight-person chamber group called ‘The Illuminators’.’ She was also one of the original singers with ‘Musically Speaking’ along with Joy Mboya, Susan Matiba, and Suzanne Gachukia. “But then I left them when I went to do my A-levels in the UK,” she adds. It was there that she was selected to be part of another exclusive chamber choir and began to see the wisdom of pursuing voice over piano. Majoring in singing at Guildhall School of Music where she won assorted prizes, Ciru came back to Kenya after four years and started teaching at Kenton College.

“We met when I needed a high soprano for my production of ‘Viva Mexico’ and she needed a pianist to do ‘Oliver’ at Kenton,” recalls Mike. Their relationship blossomed and after several years, they got married. But then Ciru got a full scholarship to study in New York at the Mannes College of Music. Mike was cool with that as she says she knew she still need to develop her technique.

After that, the two of them went back to UK where they both taught up until 2017 when they finally returned to Kenya. It is their rich experience of studying, working, and performing that their Kenyan audiences now have the opportunity to enjoy.