8:54 a.m., Jan. 20, 2010----The University of Delaware Children's Choir and the Delaware Music Educators Association will present the music workshop “West African Songs, Drumming and Dance - A Participatory Approach” with J. S. Kofi Gbolonyo at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 23, in Room 118 of the Amy E. DuPont Music Building in Newark.

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The event is free to UD students and DMEA members, and $5 for all others payable at the door.

The workshop will involve the learning, analysis and performance of some songs and a complete drumming and dance presentation.

In this lively hands-on workshop for UD Children's Choir members, UD students and area music teachers, participants will gain an understanding of music making as defined among Ghanaians through basic drumming techniques, dance steps and songs -- and the layered meanings -- of a specific Ghanaian dance and drumming piece.

Gbolonyo is a Ghanaian Ewe. He grew up in the remote villages in Ghana and Togo in West Africa. He is now a doctoral candidate, the director of the University of Pittsburgh African Music and Dance Ensemble and a teaching fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.

His primary research interest is in the religious, historical, and philosophical concepts of the musical practices and indigenous knowledge of the Ewe and Fon of West Africa. He is a specialist and a clinician in African music and dance, Ewe language, Orff-Schulwerk and multicultural music education.

As a professional teacher, he has taught music, dance and Ewe language at all levels of education in Ghana and many international arenas, including the United States, Europe and Asia.