Kabaka Mutebi opens Uganda's first classical music school

By Kalungi Kabuye The Kabaka of Buganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II, is set to open Uganda's first ever school of classical music tomorrow. The Kampala Music School is situated at the YMCA building in Wandegeya. The school will offer training on several instruments, including the piano and classical guitar. Other categories will be voice training, the recorder and flute, clarinet, violin and the viola. Others are the trumpet, saxophone, organ, flute, and double bass. They will also train students in the trombone and music theory. According to Simon Yiga, the director of the school, the school syllabus will be based on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music of the United Kingdom. He said exams will be set up to Grade 8 and then Diploma level. "Uganda has many talented musicians who have been operating in very rough circumstances," he told The New Vision. "With the set up of this school, there is an opportunity to better themselves on proper instruments." The school was established by Pianos for Uganda Ltd., a group of dedicated musicians who have helped bring 31 pianos into the country in the last two years. They have distributed the pianos among schools with music departments and churches. Yiga explained that the school has a capacity to take on 64 students in a day, with eight teachers teaching eight-hour shifts. He said they can take on anybody interested in improving their music skills, from beginners to popular musicians. Sessions cost sh10,000 for thirty minutes, sh13,000 for 45 minutes and sh15,000 for an hour. The school is open the whole day for instrument practice, with students paying sh1,000 per hour. Ends