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music - Ghana - africa - percussion power - event - tradition - dance - concert - festival - Switzerland |
WATCH VIDEOS OF MY CONCERTS:   |
WATCH VIDEOS OF MY WORKSHOPS: |
| Peter John Kofi Donkor is a musician and music teacher from Ghana, living in Switzerland. 1968 John Kofi Donkor was born in Accra, Nima. In his early childhood he got interested in Ghanaian music: Traditional, church music and modern. With 9 years he got his first experience in acting in a theatre piece. Since then he was seriously playing music, percussion and acting drama. Soon after, Peter John Kofi Donkor joined his first cultural troupe and started his experience in African music, dance and drama. He got his qualification as a master drummer with a certificate of artistic performance from the Accra Regional Dance Association and with recommendation of the Centre for National Culture. At the Academy of African music and Art in Kokrobite, Accra (Ghana) he got trained as a music teacher. Since 1992 he began to teach traditional percussion music. Just two years after, he travelled to Europe and was a guest lecturer at the University of Vienna. A lot of teaching on various institutions in Switzerland, Germany and Austria followed in the years after. He played concerts in Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, England, France, Czechia and Italy. John Kofi Donkor played with several bands on their CDs and recently released his own CD, Krakutu power sounds. Power sound production: Peter John Kofi Donkor is teaching African drums and percussions at the music school Frick in Switzerland. He is offering a variety of courses in African music, percussion, rhythm games and rhythmicity training, dance, drama, singing, cooking and storytelling. The programs are made for children, youngsters and adults: From kindergarten to university. Watch the Gallery for more prictures and inforamtions about music, dance and theatre in Ghana |
Offers: Concert and workshops / courses: Watch videos of concerts: Watch videos of workshops: Power sound production offers concerts in various music styles: African traditional music and dance, Soft Jazz, Highlife-Reggea-Calypso, Blues and world music. From a duo till a full band. Power sound production: Peter John Kofi Donkor is teaching African drums and percussions at the music school Frick in Switzerland. He is offering a variety of courses in African music, percussion, rhythm games and rhythmicity training, dance, drama, singing, cooking and storytelling. The programs are made for children, youngsters and adults: From kindergarten to university. Together with Nadja Donkor, power sound production offers various courses about Music - Ethnology. New: Together with a French teacher, Irène Ansermet, Peter John Kofi Donkor offers courses in dance to help a better learning of the French language http://www.tanz-franz.ch/ |
  | Nadja Donkor-Kaufmann Is an ethnologist from Switzerland and was born in 1970 Zürich. She travelled in her childhood and as a youngster through Europe, India, USA (Alaska) and Canada and later together with Peter John Kofi Donkor to Ghana and Senegal. Nadja Donkor studied social anthropology and theater at the University Vienna. During her studies she specialized in the fields of culture change, culture shock, through culture contacts to intercultural learning (Ethnopsychology of cultural contacts) and performances. She studied one year at the university Legon in Accra Ghana, African drama, Ghanaian dance (school of performing arts) and African language Akan (Fante). In her thesis in social anthropology she went for a field research in Ghana and wrote about the problems of the reintegration of Ghanaian returnees from Europe. At the Swiss African Society annual meeting in Basel, Switzerland she gave a speech about her subject and wrote a publication of the Forum Africa studies Switzerland: The reintegration and its problems of Ghanaian returnees from Europe (Brücken und Grenzen, Lit Verlag, Münster - Hamburg - London 1999, S. 313 - 325). 2001 Nadja Donkor went together with her husband John Kofi Donkor and their first daughter June for a one year filed research in South Ghana, Cape Coast, Elmina and Eguafo about the subject: culture change and the didactical function of performances among the Fante in Eguafo and Elmina, which will lead to her dissertation. Go to our gallery for more informations and pictures about our travelling in music. African dance Ghana ↑top |
African drumming workshop: no stess no panic
The aim is to learn the different technics, to play on different percussion instruments, to play in a team, create and compose your own rhythms.
The westafrican drums, Kpanlogo (Afrokonga) and Djembe are fascinating people. In John Kofi Donkors workshop you learn other percussion instruments, which are important to understand the music fast and help you to keep the rhythm. You will learn traditional westafrican music, arrange and compose your own rhythms. It will improve your right-left coordination, educates you in rhythmicity, creativity and relaxation. Music is therapie and meditation. It improves your selfconfidence and concentration. Music is happyness and gives you energy. Come and play with us! Kpanlogo: with this technic you are ready to meet any kind of percussion. Fumefume: coordinates rhythms and takes your fear of playing away. Agbdza: its powerful and endless polyrhythms relax your mind. Damba-takaj: improves calmness and creativity of rhythms. Adjagbeko: strength and power helps you to learn patience Kahun: The master of automatical rhythm production Adowa: improves your coordination and reaction (mathematic drumming). Nagla: Take you to a music journey. Bobobo: its rhythm lets you compose your own styles. Bambaya: mother of slow and fast combination. Talking drums: come and learn how to speak with drums | 
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African dancing workshop: no stress no panic Dancing workshop: no stress no panic The aim is to strengthen your rhythmicity, improve your movement and coordination. Increases condition, flexibility and concentration. John Kofi Donkor starts with a warm-up program of mixed elements from traditional Ghanaian dances and will move our steps to the specific dances of the different ethnics. In the dance we are communicating with movements and steps with the drum rhythms. Every dance is telling us a story. Through the story we will find our coordination, movements and steps. Combining those together will give you strength, flexibility and relaxation. It prepares you to meet any kind of dancing. Come and dance with us! It gives you happiness and energy, will strengthen your selfconfidence and concentration. Kpanlogo: Its dance movement will prepare you for a music journey. Fumefume: Its dance will increase your fitness and gives you more energy. Agbadza: The power of movement and coordination gives you happiness. Damba-takaj: Its dance increases your flexibility and concentration. Adjagbeko: Strength, patience and calmness increases your fastness. Kahun: helps you to increase your flexibility and the coordination of your steps. Adowa: It is the origin of the development of the step dance in America. Nagla: its dance travels with you to farming fields (harvest dance). Bobobo: This is the fitness center, comparable to Discodance. Bambaya: Improves your hips flexibility and feeds you with energy. Talking drums: Traditional dance combined with modern dances. | 
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Drama and Storytelling African drama and storytelling are combined with music, dance, singing and percussion instruments. John Kofi Donkor uses symbols of animals to tell a story. He will then guide the participants to form a drama piece. The theater pieces are called: - Why got the chameleon its colours?
- Why is the tortoise the intelligent one of the animal kingdom?
- Why is the lion the king of the animal kingdom?
- Ananse: stories of a spider, with its intelligence and its wonderful tricks.
- The story about an eagle and a tortoise.
- The ashanti kingdom
- A story about the fox and the dog.
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Rhythm games and rhythmicity training John Kofi Donkor uses special percussions instruments for teaching the rhythm game. This game is combined with mathematic thinking. It improves your reaction, your selfconfidence and in the same time its relaxing and amusing. It keeps you fit in the mind and prepares you to meet any other game. Namo ye la wi, hama ye al wi: this is the proverb song of this game. |  |
African kitchen Come to John Kofi Donkors cooking lessons with music. In Africa we use everyting fresh and natural. An improtant kitchen tool is the asanka. It is multifunctional. When we grind pepper, onion and tomatoes inside, we grind with rhythm. Our cooking pots and tools will make you feel like cooking every day. We use tropical ingredians, like yam, plantain, cassava, ginger, okro, gardeneggs, spinach and a lot of hot spices. This will inspire you to enjoy your kitchen. |  |
Music ethnology: From the root to the fruit Introduction: John Kofi Donkor and Nadja Donkor are introducing themselves and the westafrican country Ghana.Some of the typical traditional music instruments are explained by J.K. Donkor. He is speaking about the origin, the function and the occasion of playing those instruments. In the olden days, some instruments are used like a telephone or a radio. In Ghanaian society songs, dances and rhythms are the keys of solving problems. Each rhythm tells about an event in a region. The sound of the drums informs the people in the region to gather in a special place to come and listen. Each rhythm informs the people already what the meeting is about, for example if there is a marriage, a child is born, a funeral or the kingdom has a political / social message. When the people gather, the musicians and dancers welcome the kingdom with a special music and song. Music and dance communicate and send the message to the people. A dance tells many stories which fits to the problems of the society. In our songs we use a lot of proverbs, which are telling and solving problems of the daily life, financial, family or partner problems. It tells also about inter - ethnical or religious conflicts. Proverbs are keys for solving problems. The songs, dances and rhythms bring the people together for discussion. So you can see how people walk home in groups and still discuss. It doesn't matter where they come from, which religion or ethnic they belong to. They walk in groups with happiness. It shows tolerance and acceptance in society. We call this traditional music: Its value lies in the connection of problems in the society and makes people realize their problems. The input to solve their problems by themselves is, to hear the songs and see the dance. This seed of the traditional music, is still growing in all kinds of music styles: Form the root to the fruit Discussion with participants: As a native understanding the culture from inside, we want to compare it with the view from outside. Workshop: We take some of the westafrican rhythms and compose our own rhythms, movements and steps. John and Nadja Donkor form together with you ideas and develop it into a new dance. The aim is to strengthen the self confidence, creativity and to realize your own talent. Respect and tolerance brings unity. From the root to the fruit For more informations and impressions visit the gallery - african music dance | 
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Concert: African music and dance WINGS OF A DOVE - PERCUSSION POWER stretches its wonder wings and flies with you through rhythms, dances and miracles of Africa. The group performs powerful traditional Ghanaian percussion music with flute, singing, dancing and sometimes with miraculous acrobats. The members of the group are all professional Ghanaian Artists living and working in Europe. Since several years they perform on various events in Switzerland (UN-open day, Expo 2002, Pan African Forum University Fribourg, Ghana 50th anniversary Geneva, Africa in Basel, Museum night Basel and other festivals) England, Germany (University Hannover and Görlitz) and Austria. A recent powerful performance was at the CD-Release event of J. K. Donkor in November 2008 in Frick, Switzerland. Let wings of a dove - percussion power take you to a musical journey through your favorite rhythms. Involve and engage us into your activities. Feel the touch of African music celebrations and festivals. Watch our gallery for more pictures! |  |
Links If you want to read a site about PowerSoundProduction in German: www.africanartworkshop.npage.de Music, dance and drama Watch videos of my concerts and workshops : www.youtube.com/kofimusicful Concerts of african music, dance and songs from Southafrica. The group is based in Switzerland, perfome in Germany, Austria and Tchechia. www.blackpower.ch Soft Jazz, Reggae, Calypso and worldmusic. Performing in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Marokko. www.sirroberto.com African (Ghanaian) funk-reggae music. It s a modern style and became internationally known. www.kojoantwi.com Ghana Commision on Culture. People`s group. Traditional percussion, music, dance, drama and songs...agoo! www.ghanaculture.gov.gh Ghanian Embassy in Switzerland. www.ghanaembassy.ch African (Ghanaian)music, dance, theater (drama) - workshop - emashie ayekoo! Workshop in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and England. You can watch more about Peter John Kofi Donkors workshops in this school with grade 5 classes. http://www.isbgrade5.shutterfly.com/ Ghanaian music, percussion, dance and drama - workshop: on the website go to "Klassenbeiträge" then to "Bluesworkshop P5c" and see how a workshop of Peter John Kofi Donkor looks like. http://www.schuleneuenhof.ch/ Afro - soul - music and dance with percussion and other instruments. http://www.afropercussion.ch/ Soul of Africa. workshops of Music, dance, singing and storytelling of Africa. Concerts of famous African musicians. http://www.afro-pfingsten.ch/ Language combined with music and art. Percussion, dance: steps and movements of Africa / Westafrica / Ghana. You can watch Peter John Kofi Donkors workshop, dance combined with Language, percussion music increases your learning ability. http://www.tanz-franz.ch/ More information about any issue concerning Africa: travel, culture, music, tradition, dance, percussion - instruments, schools and any education. http://www.africaguide.com/ More about Dagara music of westafica, dance, instruments and dynamic rhythms. www.dagaramusic.com African studies in Basel, seminars of african traditions, literatur, music instruments, ethnology. http://www.zasb.unibas.ch/ Ghana life Westafrica. More informations about Ghanaian culture, tradition, language, performing art and people www.library.yale.edu/ More about music of Africans and Afro Americans in Britain. Percussion sound, dance, music - managment, workshops, festivals and celebrations, Litarture and other topics on African art. http://www.britishblackmusic.com/
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