Gavin Greenaway: All set for award-winning composer's concert with Nairobi Chamber Chorus

A British pianist, composer and conductor who has written and conducted music for global stars like Paul McCartney and Bryan Adams will perform at a concert in Nairobi next week.

Emmy award winner Gavin Greenaway has also conducted scores for major Hollywood films like Gladiator, The Dark Knight, Pearl Harbor, The Prince of Egypt and Pirates of the Caribbean.

The 60-year-old was the director of the World of Hans Zimmer-A New Dimension, a stage show featuring the works of German composer Hans Zimmer that was seen by half a million people during its European tour in 2024.

It is during this tour that Greenaway was enchanted by the Nairobi Chamber Chorus who were the choir for the performances. “They were instantly so warm and generous and likeable and quick,” he recalls, during an interview with the BDLife from his home in Walton-on-Thames in the UK.

“Not only were they great singers, they learnt choreography too. Before the show there would be a group of them singing, dancing, doing Tik Tok videos and stuff. Believe me, that is quite rare for a choir. We were just enjoying making music together.”

As the tour came to an end, Greenaway was determined to explore a potential collaboration, possibly an album combining the group’s choral singing with saxophone or piano. “I am still at the exploratory stage because nothing has to be right, I just need ideas. I am going to come and hear them sing and spend some time with choirmaster Ken Wakia.”

Wakia says his choir that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, made a connection with Greenaway that enabled them to feel very relaxed during last year’s tour.

“A conductor can often make a performer feel connected to them or not, and on Gavin’s downbeat during our first rehearsal, we felt this sense of freedom, comfort and connection with him and the music,” he recalls.

“Despite the many pieces he had to put together, he paid great attention to what we were doing, and he would call us after rehearsals to fix one note or two bars in a song,” adds Wakia.

The choir will perform an arrangement of their rich African repertoire as an opening act during Greenaway’s concert at the Muthaiga Country Club on February 28, 2025. He has written some new pieces of music, including solo choral parts, which he will perform with the choir.

As part of his research, Greenaway has been watching videos of performances from the Kenya Music Festivals on YouTube. “I am such a beginner when it comes to these rhythms. They are so natural singing these incredible folk songs with amazing rhythms,” he observes. “This is my first time ever writing music for choir.”

The set list features pieces from Woven, his multilayered piano album released in 2019, for the first half of the concert. He sets up microphones on the piano and plays pre-recorded effects like reverb and delays, off a computer to create the requisite ambience. “It is not classical music, it is not pop music, its simple melodic structure. I am not one for discordant music, I like music to be nice-sounding,” he explains.

Greenaway has written music for major global events like the 2010 Winter Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.

He conducted Paul McCartney’s classical abum Ecce Cor Meum in 2006 and co-wrote the music for the 2002 animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron with Bryan Adams.

“It was fun times to work with someone of that stature…when you get into the room with Adams or McCartney, they are really straight forward, normal people, no egos. It is just like “this is who I am and let’s make music”,” he says.

“I can’t believe I have reached 60 and still haven’t been to Kenya so I am not just coming to visit the choir but I want to go round see the country and the meet the people and then go back home and work out what this music is going to sound like. When it is all written then I’ll be back later in the year and we’ll record it,” says Greenaway.

According to him, the sheer joy of the voices of the Nairobi Chamber Chorus can help the world deal with the turmoil of current times. “Choral music speaks to our heart because we all have a voice. Everyone can sing however badly and a group of people coming together for that purpose is a great metaphor for what we should be doing in the world. Use music to make the world a better place.”

For Wakia, this is another milestone in the life of the choir he founded in 2005. “We came from signing under a tree at the Africa Nazarene Church, Ngong Road, signing in a small village in Mbeya, Tanzania to signing for the Queen of England and now on the stage with the biggest composers of film music. What can I say!”

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