Nairobi News

The Nairobi Chamber Chorus had a spectacular night at the London O2 Stadium when they performed during the World of Hans Zimmer Symphony concert this past weekend.

The World of Hans Zimmer, curated by German film score composer and music producer Hans Zimmer- a two-time Oscar award winner and four-time Grammys winner.

In the musical show, Zimmer aims to “preserve the culture of the orchestra and allow audiences to rediscover the unique facets of orchestral music. There are many background stories I would love to tell and long-time companions and friends I would like to introduce.”

Zimmer is the musical genius behind movie scores like Dune, No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years A Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-written with Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk, as well as recent scores for Top Gun: Maverick, Wonder Woman 1984 and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

Most recently, Zimmer won the Academy Award® for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures for Dune.

In 2019, Zimmer scored the live-action remake of The Lion King, for which he received a Grammy® nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

One of the performing groups at the symphony concert was the Nairobi Chamber Chorus, a grouping of young Kenyans who ‘participate in high-quality musical forums’ and are now ‘leading musicians in Kenya, performing and teaching music across the country and beyond.”

Prior to their London performance, they celebrated the honour of meeting Hans Zimmer during their sound check and hours later, performed before 20,000 fans who came for the concert.

“Whoa! Manchester audience was absolutely on Wueh! And there were some familiar faces in the crowd as well! So lovely to perform for people you know! Jo Wakia, Claire Hollis and co – soooo good to see you in the audience,” said Ms Corrine Towett Laight, a member of the Chorus.

“Last weekend was a feast of music. Saturday (April 6) evening saw me at the SJE Arts Center in Oxford enjoying The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage with music from the Renaissance, beautifully sung in a stunning setting. And then on Sunday evening, a complete contrast and what an incredible treat to be able to join Joanna Wakia and the boys at the packed Manchester Arena for the spectacular which was The World of Hans Zimmer-A New Dimension, featuring the wonderful Nairobi Chamber Chorus with Corrine Towett Laight and Ken Wakia. Really glad to see NCC take their place on this international stage (and many others on the two-month-long European tour). Well deserved,” said Ms Claire Hollis.

The Nairobi Chamber Chorus was founded in October 2005 by Ken Wakia with the aim of promoting intercultural exchange and expanding Kenyan musicians.

“The chorus offers a cultural exchange platform on which visiting musicians can interact with upcoming Kenyan musicians. Their vision is a strong, well-trained musical community which can use its music to promote peace and cross-cultural understanding through quality performance of choral music. Members are drawn from the various universities and institutions around Nairobi. It is a purely voluntary group and members volunteer their time and resources to meet and make music,” read the Chorus’ bio on their official website.

NCC has toured several places including the southeast United States of America- Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida; Denmark and the United Kingdom. They are currently on a European tour with Hans Zimmer.

“We are extremely lucky and honoured to be the choir for this tour. I think the addition of our African dance movements during a performance has been a wonderful addition to the show, without which it would have felt like there was just that one little thing still missing,” Mr Wakia told Business Daily in a prior interview.