It was a beautiful and delightful sight to behold when the Accra Symphony Orchestra & Lumina last Sunday thrilled their audience at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel to commemorate their sixth anniversary celebration.
It was thrilling to witness the beauty and style with which the organisers arranged the whole setting and the ease and comfort that came with it.
The orchestra, led by music director Benedictus Acolatse, churned out fantastic tunes on the compositions of Nana Danso Abiam’s ‘Sompa’ and ‘Yaa Yaa Kole’ left the whole crowd nodding and miming in anticipation for more tunes.
Just when the audience thought they had had enough of the warm up, Lumina surprisingly appeared from behind the crowd in colourful garments holding microphones and filling through the aisles within the audience and towards the stage where the orchestra was.
They began singing classical pieces such as ‘Van Pensiero’, ‘Libiamo Ne Lieti Calici’ and ‘Addio, Addio’ by Giuseppe Verdi, ‘Intermezzo’ by Pietro Mascagni, ‘Nessun Dorma’ by G. Puccini, among others.
The audience was not only thrilled but overwhelmed with joy per their response.
The concert gradually slided into a familiar session, which consisted of African tunes and operatic pop, which got the audience zoomed into it and sang along with tunes such as ‘You Raised Me Up’ composed by the Irish Norwegian duel and Osibisa’s ‘Welcome Home’, ‘Tonight’ by Leonard Bernstein and ‘Ave Maria’ by Franz Schubert.
Then came the popular request session where the audience had fun requesting their favourite African songs. They requested ‘Lady’ by Fela and ‘Woyaya’ by Osibisa.
The African beat in these songs came with an indescribable feeling apt to get the retired remains of patriotic African souls twisting and turning to good music in their graves.
It was simply a fascinating and thrilling experience which left the audience singing home the very tunes they listened to.
The concert attracted personalities such as Dr Mensa Otabil, the founder of the group, Joyce Aryeee, Canadian High Commissioner, Heather Anne Cameron, Colombian Ambassador to Ghana, Claudia Turbay Quintero, Father Campbell, among others.