Bernard Woma
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Bernard Woma (18 December 1966 - 27 April 2018) was a well-known Dagara gyile player from Upper West Ghana who spent many years teaching the instrument and introducing it to audiences around the world. He was born in the village of Hiineteng, in the Upper West Region. Bernard began playing the gyil around 2 years old, and as he grew older he became well known for his musical abilities. In 1982, Bernard, moved to Accra and began to play the gyil for the Dagara community. Where he was later offered the position as a xylophonist for Ghana's National Dance Company. In 1997, he founded and became the artistic director of Saakumu Dance Troupe in Ghana. Bernard's guidance and leadership, attracted many people from around the world to come study from him. He was then invited as a guest at the State University of New York, where he earned a bachelor's degree in international studies and two master's degrees in African Studies and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He was xylophonist and lead drummer of the National Dance Company of Ghana and of Saakumu Dance Troupe. He performed with New York Philharmonic, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Albany Symphony Orchestra as well as Berliner Symphoniker in Berlin, Germany, and KwaZulu Natal Symphony Orchestra in Durban, South Africa. He performed his gyil concerto composition "Gyil Nyog Me Na" in 2006 at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall, New York. He also founded Dagara Music and Arts Center in Accra, Ghana.
Signed to the Jumbie Records label, he released the live album Bernard Woma in Concert on the label in 2003. In 2009, he released the studio album Crossroad on the Chris Wabich label. He formed the Bernard Woma Ensemble with musicians Kofi Ameyaw and Mark Stone and master dancers Sulley Imoro and Peace Elewonu. Gyile is a type of West African xylophone, with seventeen keys constructed over gourds. It holds a place in the musical traditions of the Dagara and Birifor people of northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso.
Woma was deeply committed to education, founding the Dagara Music and Arts Center in Accra, Ghana. The center became the hub for teaching traditional African instruments. In addition to his work in Ghana, Woma was a sought-after guest lecturer and teacher at universities and music institutions around the world. His teaching emphasized not only technical mastery but also the cultural and spiritual dimensions of African music. The center embodies his belief that cultural preservation required not just documentation, but active engagement and practical learning in an authentic environment.
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Crossroad - 2009-10-15 00:00:00
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