Festschrift in Honour of The Music Maestra Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke

This is an online version of the Feschrift in honour of the Music Maestra Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke.

PREFACE:

Writing this preface to The Music Maestra, a festschrift in honour of a great Professor of Music pedagogy, a pianist, a violinist, an artiste and a humanist, is an honour and privilege from among my peers in the world of Nigerian Music Education. I also consider my role a right, being one of the very few to have known and associated with her longest, from the Department of Music at University of Nigeria, Nsukka since 1978 to her residential home in Nimo, Anambra State and recently her apartment at Fara Park Estate along Lekki-Epe Expressway in Lagos. I had after my last visit privately proclaimed her “Best Hostess” but have this unique opportunity to so announce publicly. Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke has the temperament of an Angel and reminds me of the television series; “Struck by an Angel”. The accounts in this collection of articles further prove so as this book unfolds.

Writing this preface is also a fulfillment of my innermost desire to be part of this epochal documentation on a quintessential woman of honour and grace, a musician per excellence, a teacher, a mother, a grandmother, an amiable friend and a respected colleague. Though born in South Korea she became a completely transformed Nigerian, following her marriage and relocation to Nigeria in 1975 with her husband Dr. John O. Onyiuke.

In less than a year and despite COVID restrictions/anxieties and current sociological/economic situation of the country, this festschrift attracted 59 articles on various topics on contemporary music education and practice in Nigeria, hence a must read for all music educators, music students and lovers of music. The methodological approaches include, direct contact and real life experiences with Professor Onyiuke, interviews, participant observation, qualitative and descriptive phenomenological designs, literary and analytical research. These birthed acknowledge excursion into the labyrinth of African musicology and pedagogy categorized into seven sections (A-G).

Section A on The Person of Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke begins with an impressive biography, with personal information about her parentage, primary and secondary education, her stint with nursing, her marriage, children, tertiary education and work experience. It also highlights her membership of many professional music bodies including ANIM (Association of Nigerian Musicologists), PASMAE (Pan African Society for Musical Arts Education, SOMEN (Society of Nigeria Music Educators). She has 60 academic publications including one authored book, six chapters in books, numerous journal articles, original compositions and scores for orchestra, string quartets and folk songs.

According to Layade in her contribution; “The Inestimable quality of a Nigerian Music Educator”, “Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke belongs to a high class of female scholars and proudly takes her place as the 5th female Professor of Music in Nigeria after Prof. Mosunmola xiOmibiyi-Obidike, Prof. Josephine Ngozi Mokwunyei and Prof. Agatha Onwuekwe, Rev. Sr. Prof Cordis Mariae Achikeh. She further described her as a diligent and meritorious teacher at Nnamdi-Azikiwe and Babcock Universities.

Interestingly, one of the contributions is by Ejiofor and Chioma Onyiuke (Prof. Onyiuke's son and daughter in-law). I am not surprised at the title of their paper, “The Importance of Music Training on the Child's Brain and Cognitive Development”. They are also beneficiaries of her music lessons to their children (her grandchildren) and hence in a position to know the influence of music on the child's mental development. I personally witnessed some of those lessons both at her apartment and in their home in Lagos. Another relation of hers, Tochukwu Onyiuke wrote on “Music, Law and the Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on the Music Industry”. That again is another evidence of how much she has impacted differently on family and society as evident in the different sections of the book.

The other sections (B-G) contain a plethora of articles on diverse themes for all interests ranging from topics on (B) Music, Education and Development; (C) Music, Law and Politics; (D) Music, Religion and Philosophy; (E) Music, Culture and Tourism; (F) Music, Creative Arts and Entrepreneurship, to (G) Music Language and Literature.

I congratulate the fifty nine colleagues, students, friends and admirers of Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke who contributed to this publication but specially, the editorial committee led by Dr. Ebele Ojukwu who initiated the whole idea and the consenting duo of Dr. Ikedimma Okeke and Dr. Iruoma Ugoo-Okonkwo who joined her in the onerous task of collating and editing the rushes.

The realization of this festschrift as motivated by the personality of Professor Onyiuke has indeed fulfilled the virtue of “giving honour to whom honour is due”, as she bows out from active service upon statutory retirement. It also invalidates the cliché of a prophet not being recognized in their own home, and the reward of the teacher being in heaven. In this case, this “Prophet” is obviously being celebrated amongst her peers and sore warded on earth as well. We can only imagine how gratified she must feel about this.

Professor Josephine Ngozi Mokwunyei (PhD. Legon, FANIM, FSONTA, PHF, JP)
Professor of African Musicology and Theatre
University of Benin,
MARCH 2022.

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This is an online version of the Feschrift in honour of the Music Maestra Professor Young-Sook Onyiuke.

It was published in 2022.