Soul-stirring concert opened MUSON Festival 2025 as musical tributes pour in for Marion Akpata

By Anote Ajeluorou

WHEN on Tuesday, October 14, organisers of MUSON Festival 2025 held its signature MUSON Day Concert to commemorate the founding of the country’s number culture space, the lucky guests who enjoyed a free pass were entertained for two hours of what the Festival Planning Committee Chairperson, Folasade Doherty, described as “such a soul-stirring concert and amazing performances. Marion touched so many lives.” This was moreso when the concert was dedicated to the memory of the founding Director of the MUSON School of Music, Mrs. Marion Akpata, who recently joined the heavenly choir.

From the pre-concert steel band at the foyer to when guests were ushered into the Agip Recital Hall, it was two hours of music magic to cherish. Chairman of MUSON Centre, Mr. Louis Mbanefo set the tone for the evening when he read the resume of Mrs. Akpata’s illustrious career as music teacher. But this had been preceded by the performanc e of ‘Yellow Bird’, composed Harry Belafonte and performed by Olarenwaju Ogunshina. Mbanefo then traced Marion’s roots from her Caribbean Jamaican parents, who migrated to America and how she took to music at age 9, starting with the piano and securing a music education to a Master’s degree level. She would meet her Nigerian husband Mr. Solomon Akpata at Michigan State University, where they got married. The young couple would move to Benin City, Nigeria in 1974, where she became Principal of Idia College, before moving to Lagos in 1976 and taking up music teaching position at Queens College, Lagos.

Later, she was approached by MUSON Centre in 2005 to serve as the pioneer director of the proposed music school’s diploma programme. For Mbanefo, she was “instrumental in persuading MTN Foundation to sponsor the school by providing scholarships to all students… And during her time, the MUSON Choir was invited in 2010 to perform in Beijing, China at the world conference for International Society of Music Education…. In 2023, Marion was given the Helen M. Hosmer Excellence in Music Teaching award for her outstanding global career as a music teacher…”

In concluding his tribute, Mr. Mbanefo said, “It is fitting that this MUSON Day Concert is given by alumni of the school in her memory. Her name will forever feature in the annals of MUSON. Marion will be sorely missed by the entire MUSON community, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to her daughter Sonia and her entire family.”

John-Paul Ochei performing ‘Akpata’ in honour of Marion Akpata

With the evening expertly guided by ace music performer and actor, Mr. Benneth Ogbeiwi, act after act from solo to duets and the over 50-man MUSON Chamber Orchestra, the evening was electrified with a rainbow of voices and instruments. Belafonte’s ‘Jamaican Farewell’, performed by soloist John Onosolease with David Ogboyomi’s piano accompaniment, with the support of MUSON Essemble, percussion and flute that set the music performance pace. Onosolease engaged the audience, as he made them sing along, sometimes separating the men from the women and then bringing them together again. His special style endeared him to the audience who felt part of the performance. Ogbeiwi would latch on this to tease the men as poor singers compared to the women’s more energetic rendering to heartfelt laughter from the audience.

Then the MUSON Essemble, with percussion and flute, did Florence Price’s ‘Song without words in A major’ and Nora Holt’s ‘Negro Dance’. With music maestro Korode Omopeloye on the grand piano in a solo recital, the audience waited with bated breath, as Omopeloye exhibited his skill with a flourish, combined with a unique gesture mannerism all his own that wowed his audience; he is a man who knows his place when he sits behind the piano, and it showed to the audience’s delight. This act was followed by the supremely gifted soprano singer Angela Akwarandu, who did W. A. Mozart’s ‘Parto Parto’, which turned out a masterclass act in soprano singing. She was accompanied by Tosin Ajayi on the piano. Akwarandu took the audience through the intimate contours of Mozart’s world, the high and the low and the mid-points and ended with that classy, breath-taking high that stunned her audience.

Thereafter, trumpeter Nicholas Emeka lent his windy dexterity to Guy Ropartz’s ‘Adante et Allegro’, with accompaniment by Tosin Ajayi, and he blew balmy notes to the audience’s soul. With the accompaniment of Victor Eze, the duet soprano performers – Titilope David and Jennifer Maduka – stole a rare performance moment for themselves, as they did Jean-Paul-Egide Martini’s ‘Plaisir D’amore’ song to rousing applause. The duet performance was as well sung as the hype that trailed the two ladies under the glittering stage lights. And then pianist McPherson Agah did Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Duetto’ song without words.

There was a moment’s break for another tribute to Mrs. Akpata by her colleague, together with whom she pioneered the setting up of MUSON School of Music, Mrs. Edna Jane Deinyo Soyannwo. Although Ghanaian but married to a Nigerian like Marion, Mrs. Soyannwo’s tribute, ‘A Historical Memoir Spanning 60 Years in Nigeria’ started off on a philosophical note when she said, “History is God’s story, the story of His perfect creation, and the people He has placed in it. Marion Akpata was one and this is how her story evolved as far as I know,” and she then traced how their path met and remained true till her very end in July 2025.

“I met Marion in the mid-sixties,” she recalled. “Our careers placed us, as if by divine plan in the Federal Ministry of Education, she in Queens College and I in Kings College. We had a few things in common. Both of us were music teachers, non-indigenes of Nigeria, but have made Nigeria our home, because we were married to supportive Nigerian husbands, who introduced us to prominent people in society. We looked for each other at music gatherings and were invited to take part in workshops and present papers at seminars. We bonded together.”

She went on to describe the gifted music teacher thus, “…Marion created an indelible niche during her teaching career, which could not be ignored. Marion, as a concert pianist, joined the Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) and gave a few successful recitals… set an unprecedented standard during her teaching career… she formed and trained a strong choir at Queens College in the early 1980s. Her school won many school competitions.”

As Marion’s deputy at MUSON School of Music, Mrs. Soyannwo informed her audience of the many enduring qualities of her friend and colleague, adding, “As a person, I would describe Marion as taller than the ordinary very tall lady. She was noble in poise; a hard worker, tireless, benign in nature, never lost her temper. She laughed a lot, especially at my contrived jokes… She spent the past 60 years in selflessly touching the lives of thousands… Marion made history. She will be sorely missed by all her students, most of them celebrities in Nigeria and world wide.”

Soyannwo ended her tribute with the invitation of MUSON alumni to perform ‘Jerusalem my Home’, conducted by Sir Emeka Nwokedi. Thereafter, Fatima Anyekema performed a traditional Negro spiritual ‘Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot’ via the multimedia in mezzo soprano. Then also in memory of Marion’s root, a piano duet performance between Tosin Ajayi and John Eclou, almost in adversary format, squared it off with two grand pianos embedded into each other, as they did ‘Jamaican Rumba’ by Arthur Benjamin to the audience’s delight and applause.

But mezzo soprano Vera Onah was perhaps the belle of the evening with her romantic performance antics, with ace pianist Ayo Bankole accompanying her. Seemingly dressed for a date, she gave vocal felicity to Claude Debussy’s ‘Habanera’, obviously a love song of an infatuated girl inviting her shy and unwilling lover to be bold and to come over to claim her love that is all for him. She did it with such finesse that when she finished, evening compere Ogbeiwi, had to step in to scrutinise the part of the audience Onah faced and pointed in the hall in mock jealousy comments that caused laughter to erupt among the audience in the hall.

Another mezzo soprano performer Mary Eyo, accompanied by Daniel Akogwu, also lent her vocal dexterity to ‘Ave Maria’ by Guilio Caccini. Eyo gave a good account of herself, as she took the audience to the height of Caccini’s soul-stirring song. Two solo performers, one by John-Paul Ochei with Tosin Ajayi on piano, performed ‘Akpata’, a song he lustily sang in Yoruba with a swag all his own and a patchy vocal tune but with the right melodious tinge that carried a marked lustre that was infectious before Ogbewu’s completed the solo and duo performances for the evening with his own rendering of song over the piano.

Marion Akpata (1939 – 2025)

Then it was time for the over 50-man MUSON Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Nwokedi, who also paid tribute to Marion, as one of those she recruited him while starting out the music school. “What Marion did for music in this country is tremendous,” he said. “What she did here is comparable to what happens abroad. She was calm; she accommodated everybody. She was a director who encouraged this institution to attend international festivals and competitions. She laid the foundation for the MUSON Choir.”

Surprisingly, Sir Nwokedi’s wards were barely three weeks old as new intakes of the music school, but you’d think they had been performing together forever. It was a thrilling performance, as the full orchestra rendered four pieces, accompanied by Bight Kpalap – ‘Gabriel Faure’s ‘Kyrie in Paradisum’ (from Requiem), ‘Alma Androzo’s ‘If I can help somebody as I pass along’, Arr. Hugh S. Robertson’s ‘Steal away to Jesus’ and ‘Ride the Chariot’, a traditional Negro spiritual arranged by Sir Nwokedi.

Marion’s daughter Sonia paid tribute to her mother and also commended MUSON Centre for its thoughtfulness in remembering to celebrate her mother in a special way with a concert. A musician herself, she recalled the rigorous moments when her mother would chastise her in her piano practice that made her a better musician.

“Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and generosity in this respect,” Sonia said. “My mother dedicated her life to music. She encourage her students to recognize, actualize and own their musical talent to greatness. That being said, the life of a musician is one filled with focused discipline to one’s craft, and hours and hours of dedicated time to preparing notes for exams and concerts such as this. I know this well having been privileged to have my mother as piano teacher. She’d listen to my daily hours of practice from two rooms away and then I’d suddenly hear, ‘That’s wrong Sonia! Do it again.’

“She knew every note, every piece I ever played. She encouraged me to the heights of my own personal piano career. I have performed on some of the great stages of the world in America and in France.”

Then Sonia made the revelation of the evening by announcing that her beloved mother had gifted her grand piano to MUSON Centre, saying, “It was my mother’s wish to give the MUSON Centre her grand piano.” This elicited jubilation from the audience, and it was beyond doubt that Mrs. Marion Akpata was generous in life with her talent and career and as in death also.