It is hard to miss the festive season of Christmas, but at Ashesi students have usually postponed celebration, as they prepared to take finals and finish up semester projects. This year was different. It was ten days to Christmas, and in the Cornfield and Archer courtyard, the Ashesi Community came together to celebrate the season of joy.
Teaming up to organise a concert that may grow to become one of our best traditions yet, the Decibels music group and Pencils of Promise Ghana advertised an evening that Ashesi would never forget – and they made it happen.
Dr. Esi Ansah and Jessica Ali ‘15 got the show started, with great renditions of local Christmas songs, tap dancing as they got people who were familiar with the songs chiming with them. They opened up the floor for the ‘Happening Halos’ – the staff and faculty choir.
Faculty Intern, Edward Opoku ’11, and Asst. Career Services Director, Abigail Lartey, were the lead voices for the group, which performed admirably, with students cheering loudly as they sung Silent Night through to Feliz Navidad. The staff and faculty voices, somewhat rusty, were still impressive to listen to. Their dance movements, not particularly coordinated, got the student audience screaming with delight.
The newly formed Decibels music group, which was performing for the first time in front of a large Ashesi audience, was in great form the whole evening. Led by Prince Acquaye ’13, and dressed in white, Decibels took it up a notch from the ‘Happening Halos’, as it lit up the courtyard with renditions of classics like the ‘Twelve days of Christmas’, ‘Mary did you know?’, and ‘Oh! Holy Night’. Alan Neequaye ’16, part of the Decibels group, also performed a great solo to a ballet dance by Lauretta Evans-Anfom ’14.
The Kingdom Sanctuary Choir, one of Ashesi’s longest-standing music groups, took Ashesi to Church as it performed moving Christmas songs, including ‘Now behold the lamb’, with lead singer Jessica Amoafo ’14 performing at her best.
As the evening wound down, George Neequaye ’14, who started Pencils of Promise Ghana, officially launched the organisation and encouraged students to join the drive to help provide better education. Pencils of Promise is a global movement of passionate individuals, committed to supporting the underprivileged with greater educational opportunity. (Click here to learn more about Pencils of Promise)
When the end of the show was announced, there were chants for an encore, and Decibels went on to perform great dance music for the crowd. All the people at the concert, including the residents of Berekuso who attended, left full of cheer. Christmas was here. (See more photos from the Decibels Music Concert here.)