Spring Concert: Woyaya (We Will Get There...)
Sharing A New Song presents:
WOYAYA
(We Will Get There…)
Directed by Donnell Patterson
With Special Guests Mawuyno Kobla (M.K.) Titiati and Joe Galeota
Saturday, May 2, 8:00 pm
First Parish Unitarian Universalist
630 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA
Tickets: $25
ABOUT THE CONCERT:
Join Sharing A New Song for a very special concert, WOYAYA (We Will Get There), featuring songs of reflection, solace, joy and celebration. Under the musical direction of Donnell Patterson, SANS will take you on emotional journey, from affecting choral works to celebratory pop anthems. The concert will conclude with a set of songs from Ghana, with live drumming and percussion, led by special guests Mawuyno Kobla (M.K.) Titiati and Joe Galeota.
At the emotional core of the concert are Randall Thompson's prayerful Alleluia, composed in response to the outbreak of WWII, and Sing Me to Heaven a deeply comforting ode to the power of song (“if you would comfort me, sing me a lullaby…”). In tribute to gospel giant Richard Smallwood, who passed this year, SANS will present one of Smallwood’s lesser-known works, My Everything. On the lighter side, Donnell Patterson has created two upbeat “mashups” of pop tunes that will have you dancing in the aisles!
In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Ghana, SANS is thrilled to present a set of three songs from Ghana: Oye (Asem Papa), a upbeat Ghanaian gospel classic, Dzigbordi, an infectious folk song about the virtues of love, patience and faith, and our theme song, Woyaya, with the galvanizing words we all need to hear, “We will get there, heaven knows how we will get there, but we know we will. It will be hard, we know, and the road will be muddy and rough, but we will get there….”
Sixty members of the chorus will travel to Ghana this summer, to sing and collaborate with choirs in the capital city of Acra, and in towns and villages along the coast and inland.
The Ghanain music portion of this concert has been supported in part by a grant from the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, a local agency, funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUESTS
Mawunyo Kobla (M.K.) Titiati
M.K. has been working with SANS this Spring, teaching and arranging songs from Ghana, which the choir will sing in our Spring concert WOYAYA and on tour in Ghana this Summer.
M.K. serves as Applied Music Program Administrator at Tufts University, overseeing Private Lessons and the Community Music Programs, including the Tufts Youth Philharmonic, Community Music Classes, and Tufts Summer Music initiatives. He holds a BS in Statistics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a BA in Music and Information Studies from the University of Ghana. His connection to Tufts began in 2019 through the Tufts‑in‑Ghana program, and he returned in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in ethnomusicology, graduating in 2023. Since then, he has served the Department of Music in multiple capacities, including Ensemble Manager for the African Drum and Dance Ensemble (Kiniwe) and Drum Set Instructor for both Private Lessons and Community Music.
Outside Tufts, he is the Music Director of the Borga’s Band, an Afrocentric ensemble based in Boston, and performs as drummer for the reggae band Thr3Tw2One1 as well as Sun Salon, a free jazz collective. His music career highlights include performances with numerous award‑winning musicians and ensembles, such as Gye Nyame Kete, Kofi Kinaata, Joe Mettle, Diana Hamilton, Akwaboah, Fameye, Uche Agu, Austin Maro Music, Joe Praize, Samuel Nalangira, John McDonald, Arthur Goodridge, Efe Grace, Eugene Zuta, Hilarius Wuaku, Nando Michelin’s Small Jazz Ensemble, Gospel Explosion Inc., Impact Project Ministry, Boston Mega Praise, Tufts Freshman 15, and the Tufts Third Day Gospel Choir.
JOE GALEOTA
Joe Galeota has been a performer and educator of African percussion and drum set throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa since 1972. Highlights of his career as a recording artist include the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and sampling sessions with Kurzweil and Sonic Implants. He is an associate professor of percussion at Berklee College of Music, and has mentored thousands of percussionists worldwide. Joe is also the owner of JAG Drums, a distinguished West African percussion manufacturing company.
SPECIAL THANKS:
This concert was made possible in part by a grant from the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture Grant Committee, a local agency, which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
