PHOTO: Donald Mithamo, Sept 28, 20001 Swamped by applauding Kenyan admirers in the US, the choir leaves the Maharishi stage.

Muungano Charms St Louis
by Kodi Barth -- October 14, 2001

nce described by an Israeli cabinet minister as "Emissaries of Kenyan Culture," the Muungano National Choir has just completed a remarkable third tour of the United States.

Heralding the choir's recent visit to St. Louis, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the city's leading weakly, headlined the preview, "Kenyan Choir Brings Distinctive Sound to St. Louis."

A two-hour sold-out concert at the J.C. Penney Auditorium and another at the world-renowned Loreto Hilton Auditorium lit up the city and hooked up a number of fans, who ended up tailgating the choir for the entire two-week tour. But Missouri's standing ovations turned out to be a mere prelude to the reception received in Springfield, Iowa, home of Maharishi University, where the choir evoked a reaction akin to hypnotism.

n the eve of their arrival in Iowa, the Fairfield Ledger's Sept. 27, 2001 issue, for example, quoted Elaine Reding, director of Maharishi's Chamber Singers as saying, "A live performance by this remarkable choir is truly an unforgettable experience, now not to be missed." Reding first met the Muungano at the World Choral Symposium in Vancouver, Canada, in 1993.

And the Muungano lived true to expectations. Opening the performance with a mournful, heart-rending tune of Balinikabi, a Ugandan spiritual adapted in honor of the victims of Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, the 28-member choir guided the over-booked concert hall into frenzy.

In apparent reference to the New York and Washington tragedies, the Fairfield Ledger wrote afterward, "This concert has given our entire Fairfield community a unique opportunity for inspiration and renewal through the rich sonorities of African song."

By Monday evening, October 1, only days into the tour, the choir's previous CDs, Misa Luba and Muungano Live in Holy Land, had practically sold out.

he Muungano was founded in 1979 by Boniface Mganga. The choir's distinctive style is a capella, where dance and song, reed rattle and occasional triangle reinforce percussive contour. The choir's music is a kaleidoscope of religious sentiments and proud ethnic undertones, and general social commentary.

Muungano has toured extensively in Europe, Australia, Israel, and the United States.

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