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Founder of Abuja
Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO) and wife of the German Ambassador
to Nigeria, Maria Cecilia Toledo De Schmillen, has said the group is
committed to developing the artistic talents of Nigerian youth.

To this end the
society has disclosed plans to build in the capital city a
state-of-the-art music and performing arts complex. In an interview
with NEXT, De Schimillen talks about the group’s plans to upgrade arts
infrastructure in Abuja.

The building

What we done until
now is to get a plot of land and have the choir in place but what we
don’t have is the building itself. I guess we will take around three to
four years to complete it. The project itself is very interesting.

We will bring
people from abroad to train a group that will be training others,
starting with the kids. After a few years, Nigeria would have trained a
pool of singers and musicians to International [standards]. If you look
at it like it will take a long time, you will never start. My dream is
that AMEMUSO as a society, even when I am not here, will work in
collaboration with the European Cultural Centre so there will be input
from abroad. We are looking to having a real performing arts centre in
the federal capital of Nigeria which cost about N5 billion.

Participation and membership of the society will be at no cost at all. If you have talent, come we will develop it.

Abundant Talent

I am here working
so hard because I believe the talent is immense. It is just
unbelievable. As an opera singer, singing all over the world, I think
the quality and capacity of Nigerians in the music industry is immense.
The problem here is that you do not have music schools. Nigerians learn
very fast but if you do not have music school and international
instructors, then you do not develop talents.

That is why our
music school will also be for kids. It takes decades to build a
professional. When young people here come for AMEMUSO audition, I see
incredible talents but wasted years. They were not guided and directed
early in life so they spend their years in other professions. But if
they were to be in Europe or America and had the chance to learn and
develop their talents, they would been great singers – not just opera
but jazz or other aspects of music. If it is talent here, I can say yes
it is available, if it is ability I will also yes, everything is yes
without a moment of hesitation but what are they doing with it?

Nigeria is not
exploring and exploiting fully its potential in music. You have to open
the door so that people can see you. It is like diamond hidden a
closet. Expose your cultures abroad – from opera to Fela Kuti music,
expand the spectrum.

How it started

As a Chilean opera
singer performing in Europe, I would have never thought to come to
Nigeria. The reason I am here is because I am the wife of German
Ambassador. I have been working on cultural projects many years
parallel to my career as a singer. In Chile, I started with a similar
project to Opera Abuja and AMEMUSO as well. It was very beautiful
combining non-traditional elements, combining things that are
completely different, that normally happen in countries like Europe and
South America.

I got to know my
husband through the project. When they told us to come to Nigeria, I
thought I was dead as a singer. What will I find in Nigeria? I asked.
But when we came here, during our national day, I sang the national
anthem of Nigeria and Germany.

A couple of
Nigerians listened to that and after approached me saying they wanted
me to help a group and that is what I like so much. I went to see them
and it was a church group and we decided to work. From that group we
decide to make a concert and thought about creating a society that can
do a festival, and have children choir also. Some Nigerians were
involved and we tried to make it happen.

From that group
emerged Opera Abuja and we are already on the 4th edition of the
festival, an international event where people from all the world
witness.

Teaching Nigerians to write music

After the second
Opera Abuja we thought of getting a piece of land for setting up a
music school which will also have a theatre, because there is only one
in Nigeria – like that in Lagos (Muson Centre). No other place in
Nigeria has a theatre and a concert hall. Things are getting in line
and the next Opera Abuja will be a conclusion of a lot of things in
that regard. We will do a fund-raiser to raise money for building this
incredible music or Art Performing Complex. We need to start. We will
also teach Nigerians how to write music. We sing but we do not have the
knowledge about writing and storing our songs over time. A lot of us
rely on storing the melody in our brain. Time, talent and commitment
are what are required to develop the cultural pedigree of a nation.

Opera Abuja 2010 holds at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on November 15.