Three auditions were recently held in Kumasi, Cape Coast and Ho as part of moves to recruit young music groups for the New Music Ghana project, which seeks to encourage the use of local rhythms to create authentic Ghanaian music and to link up with the Music Crossroads Program in the future.

The project, which is being organized by the Institute for Music and Development with support from the Danish Centre for Culture and Development in Denmark, also aims at getting young musicians to learn the playing of both local and Western instruments.

Groups selected in Ho to participate in an upcoming competition are Master Piece, Kekeli, Nubuke and Morkporkpor Bands, while Kumasi is being represented by Y.B. International, Power of Praise and Super 07 Bands as well as a teenage band from Holy Ghost International School.

Groups from Cape Coast are Twedeampong Traditional, Yaaba, Mary Danso, BMX and Back House Bands.

The groups are currently rehearsing under a mentorship programme in preparation for the regional, inter regional and national competitions for selection of the best group, which will attend the Music Crossroads InterRegional Festival, which would be held in August 2009 in Livingstone, Zambia.

The second and third groups will receive a set of instruments and a recording contract respectively.

Judges for the auditions in Ho included Zapp Mallet, a renowned sound musician, engineer/producer; Edinam Ansah, a musician and former second vice president of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA); and Tloo Makafui, a musician/sound engineer in Ho.

Moderators in Kumasi encompassed Michael Abubekr, an official of the Centre for National Culture in Kumasi; Daniel Annan Sackey, a music and dance expert; and Osei Kuffuor, a Kumasi-based musician.

In Cape Coast, judges comprised John Victor Owusu, Cape Coast Regional Chairman of MUSIGA; Mawuyiram Adjahoe, a lecturer at the Music Department, University of Cape Coast; Emmanuel Gziekpor, an officer of the Centre for National Culture in Cape Coast; and Jonathan Ampah Korsah, also of MUSIGA.

Musicians Union of Ghana, Music Department, University of Cape Coast and Centre for National Culture in Kumasi are also collaborating in the project.