African music ensemble to perform

The Macalester College African Music Ensemble from St. Paul, Minn., will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at Cape First Church in Cape Girardeau.

The concert is sponsored by Shere Khan, a Cape Girardeau Middle School instrumental ensemble, and the Cape Girardeau Children's Choir. Both groups also will perform at the concert.

An admission will be charged. The church is located at 254 S. Silver Springs Road.

Pam Dumey, Cape Girardeau Middle School choir director, said the Macalester College ensemble includes 40 musicians.

The ensemble performs traditional African music using a variety of authentic instruments, including drums, bells, rattles and gourds.

Some of the drums are five and a half feet tall, Dumey said.

The music includes songs used in coming-of-age ceremonies, funerals, music associated with royalty, music that makes social commentary, children's music and social dances.

Sowah Mensah, a music professor at Macalester College and a master drummer from Ghana in West Africa, directs the ensemble.

The ensemble will perform for area school children at the Cape Girardeau Junior High School auditorium at 9:30 a.m. Friday.