Sebeya band during The Ben’s performance in RDB Gala dinner.
Nyundo School of Music is taking Rwanda’s music industry to another level and is now planning to start an instruments manufacturing department.
According to the school director Jacques Murigande (a.k.a Mighty Popo), as part of expansion, Murigande said, the school is ready to start Production and Sound Engineering this year, and Instruments manufacturing next year.
“Expect a guitar made in Rwanda soon,” Murigande told KT Press.
“The new department is a good investment. We have come from very far when getting a guitar was cumbersome,” Abdul Makanyaga, a veteran singer told KT Press.
Makanyaga handled his first guitar in 1967. It was a second-hand guitar he bought Rwf600.
“I bought the guitar from a priest. It was broken but I tried to repair it and, well, it served me.”
Guitars are now available in several local shops, with an acoustic guitar worth Rwf60, 000 and an electronic guitar Rwf120, 000.
However, they are all imported.
The school is thinking big and wants to provide solutions after relocation to former Kavumu College of Education buildings in Muhanga district where they are able to take 50 students compared to 30 students previously.
This will also help them to learn diverse skills.
“At Nyundo, the school had a few facilities; we were obliged to share halls with other faculties, sometimes training under a tree. In fact, we were squeezed and did not have it all for us to grow,” he said.
For now, he said, we have laboratories, an auditorium, classrooms, a production studio. We are really thankful.
Less than ten years old Nyundo School of Music has revolutionized the Music industry, making it not only lucrative but also worthy.
Sebeya Band, made of the school alumni has already won hearts of many. The band is almost omnipresent in all premium events to warm up participants.
Auditions to select students for the school are done on merit every year, across districts. Students can register for three years, but there is also one year program.
So far, the school has a day program, but there is a possibility to have an evening school in the future, according to Murigande.
