The NIU School of Music will contribute to Black Heritage Month with a concert, “Music of Africa and the Caribbean,” featuring Gideon Foli Alorwoyie and NIU’s Clifford Alexis.

The concert is set for Sunday at 3 p.m.

The performance will be held in the NIU Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall and is open to the public at no charge.

Alorwoyie said, “There will be 12 other people performing with me, four dancers and eight other steel drummers.”

Alexis also will be accompanied by 20 student musicians of the NIU Steel Band.

NIU music professor Al O’Connor said, “It is particularly appropriate to have these native musicians representing these musical styles performing during Black Heritage Month.”

He said most music in the United States and the West Indies originated from Africa. Calypso, native to the Caribbean, is a direct descendent of African music as well, he said.

“This music was brought to these areas by slaves and indentured servants from Africa,” O’Connor said.

Alorwoyie said, “All of the music will be improvisation.”

“Gideon is definitely the best performer of his kind in the U.S. and definitely in the world,” O’Connor said.

Alexis and the steel band will play “Summer Song” and “Confusion,” two of Alexis’s compositions. They also will play Calypso songs he arranged.

O’Connor said Alorwoyie is the leader of the Chicago African-American Unity Ensemble. The ensemble is a troupe of musicians and dancers who perform the music and dances of West Africa in full costume and with authentic instruments.

“He has performed with the National Dance Company of Ghana and founded his own troupe before coming to the United States,” O’Connor said.

Alorwoyie also is an instructor of African percussion and dance at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago.

Alexis, who has been a member of the NIU’s music department for two years, is a native of Trinidad/Tobago. He also is an international musician who has performed on the steel drums in Canada, Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean region.