By: Audrey Raymonda John
At a press conference held on Thursday 15th June 2023, at the Tourism Ministry on Kingharman Road, Freetown, Telem Uncommon Sounds and the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs disclosed to the media that they have sent three Young Sierra Leonean Musicians to Global Musician Workshop in the United States of America.
The Three Sierra Leonean musicians that were selected to attend the workshop in the US were Solomon Fatoma aka (Solo’s Beat), Harold Nat-Johnson aka Fretwalker and Rosaline Johnson aka Iyabode.
They will depart Sierra Leone in August 2023, for a week-long artist exchange with talented musicians from all over the world according to Rosaline Johnson aka Iyabode.
She further that they were chosen for the program because their musical leadership in pioneering a new wave of Afrocentric jazz fusion in Sierra Leone is something they have never before incorporated in their musical programming at the Global Musician Workshop.
She also said they selected them and their organization Telem Uncommon Sounds from among so many applicants because they saw the world-class talent that would add something very new and rich to their programming.
She disclosed that last year (2022), only 5% of their participants were of African origin and zero were from Sierra Leone.
With all this travelling, the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs is supporting them.
And she continues that Telem Uncommon Sounds will also be featured in public community engagement performances in Boston, New York and the Washington DC area.
She thanked Rockdale Foundation, for their generous support as they have been supporting the education efforts of local partners in Sierra Leone since 2011.
She ends up saying, they will do their best to sell Sierra Leone Music positively in the United States.