Monday, May 10, 2010

HIFA

Harare International Festival of the Arts

They hold this event every year and Jason and I were lucky enough to get back from South Africa in time to catch a few of the shows. I was excited to see the opening which was a multimedia production of Carmina Burana (my favorite opera) but I got the dates wrong and completely missed it. We saw a lot of music shows and while Jason was busy working, I was able to hang out at the festival and catch some of the free shows and a play that I'm not convinced was that good.

Prince Edward Jazz Band played a few times on the free stage and they were actually pretty good - definitely could jam and had a nice sound!


These guys are from Austria, the one is playing the bass clarinet and the other is playing a funny new instrument called the 'Hang' (pronounced hung). It was invented in Switzerland in 2000 based on years of research on different drums and similar instruments. It has a metallic sound and the 2 instruments together compliment each other nicely. My favorite piece was a cover of Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles.

We hung out with our new friends Chrissy and Marc and their little cutie Isaac while we watched the Magnets - an acapella group that includes a guy who beat boxes, which is always impressive. The show was a little bit cheesy but fun to see something different.

We also saw a really good Australian pianist and the Spanish group Los Atlanticos, who put on a fun show full of music I could shake my hips to. The final show was Salif Keta but the lines were insane and we decided to listen to the album Jason already had on his iPod while we drove home.

It was a great festival and I can't wait to see more plays and some of the operas as well next year.

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