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Three Rivers Institute of Afrikan Art & Culture

Visiting Artist Forum

Guinean drum­mer VAF resource for 2013

Abass Camara a young mas­ter res­i­dent in Fort Wayne

Abass Camara Visiting Artist ForumThe Vis­it­ing Artist Forum is an on-going project of short and long-term res­i­den­cies for Afrikan and Dias­pora artists, who con­duct work­shops and give per­for­mances at TRIAAC and the greater Fort Wayne community.

Abass Camara of Guinea, West Africa is an accom­plished drum­mer and edu­ca­tor known through­out Guinea as one of its finest musi­cians. His stud­ies with the drum­mers of the famous Bal­let Hamana began when he was 15-years-old. He had a love for music and would go to the Ballet’s prac­tices every­day until the mem­bers decided he was old enough to take him on as a student.

After a few years Abass was awarded a posi­tion as a dunun player for Bal­let Hamana. There he grew his skills and expanded to play­ing jenbé. Even­tu­ally his posi­tion changed to play­ing and teach­ing dununs. After seven years with Bal­let Hamana, Abass and three other artists started a music ensem­ble of their own, Bal­let Watafre. With the sup­port of mem­bers of Hamana, Abass became Watafre’s Musi­cal Direc­tor, decid­ing on the music and the story being told as well as play­ing both lead jenbé and dununs. In addi­tion, Abass was the prin­ci­pal instruc­tor for Waterfre’s appren­tice drummers.

Bal­let Watafre became one of Guinea’s pre­mier bal­lets, and its mem­bers are still play­ing together for fes­ti­vals, cer­e­monies, and spe­cial occa­sions coun­try­wide. In 2007 Abass left the Bal­let and Guinea for Amer­ica. In Fort Wayne he has taught and played with JATA, the for­mer adult ensem­ble of the Three Rivers Insti­tute of Afrikan Art & Cul­ture; and taught for TRIAAC’s Three Rivers Jenbé Ensem­ble. He has also worked with Moustapha Ban­goura, dur­ing Bangoura’s three-year res­i­dency with the TRJE. Abass fre­quently con­ducts res­i­den­cies and appear­ances at local ele­men­tary schools.

Dur­ing 2013 Abass is act­ing as the music direc­tor for the TRJE Re-Mix, com­bined of the remain­ing high school stu­dents of TRJE, for­mer TRJE grad­u­ates, and JATA mem­bers. In March, TRJE Re-Mix will begin its sea­son of pub­lic per­for­mances. TRIAAC will also host a week­end work­shop in the spring fea­tur­ing Abass Camara.

 

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