By Herbert Bukenya
The year 2017’s Uganda Hip Hop awards producer of the year Nase Avatar leads the line of a long list of accomplished alumni in the music industry that owe part of their success to ESOM school of Music. Nase real names Allan Otim was a student of Production at ESOM in the year 2012 and was one of the most promising talents by the time he finished his studies.
Nase Avatar has gone on to produce some amazing music that earned him the 2017 producer of the year at the Uganda Hip hop awards having been nominated and come so close the year before that is 2016.
Currently based at Port Bell Drive studios Luzira, Nase credits his rise to his equally capable associates Analytical Alz and the beat maker Mio. He started doing production gigs in 2009 having held onto a dream he started nurturing while still in high school back in 2003, Nase finally turned professional as a music producer in 2011 working for studios like True Vine and JC Records before building his own winning team at Port Bell Drive studios.
And long before Nase Avatar became an issue in the music industry a number of renowned music producers had passed through ESOM School of Music and had their own impact on the music industry. Key among them is Producer Bless who became famous for producing some of the earlier productions of BET award winning artiste Eddie Kenzo.
Producer Bless real names Blasius Nkoloogi was at ESOM school of Music in 2010 and has confessed to going back regularly to review his skills. He has worked with a number of big artistes including the Late Moze Radio alongside his duo mate Weasal on tracks like Football, Heart Attack, Zino Enaku and Vuvuzela. He has produced other big songs over the years like Pomini Ziza Bafana, Zivuga, Kiri Kiri and Zigido by Eddie Kenzo and worked with other big stars like Bebe Cool, Mathias Walukaga, Gravity Omutujju to mention but a few.
Talking about the artistes themselves, Maro real names Magada Ronald one of the most celebrated R&B crooners in the country is an alumni of ESOM school of Music too. Maro was at the school in 2011 around the same time his break out song Sula Bulungi made it to the air waves.
Having been groomed by equally talented vocalist Aziz Azion in West End Entertainment, He has gone on to do a number of songs over the years including Kamboyine and Addcited a hot collaboration with diva Irene Namubiru last year.
Some of his most celebrated songs include Kyokoba, Rising star and Genda Ewamwe. Maro landed his first major award in 2014 and it was for the Eastern High school artiste of the year going on to get a number of more nominations over the years. He has since been unofficially crowned the R&B Kyabazinga by his diehard fans.
Other rising stars that have been churned out of ESOM school of Music in recent times include David Prince Asiimwe founder of recording house Prince Production Ug and a recording gospel artiste too. He was a student at ESOM in 2014 and has gone on to become a lecturer there too and Paul Lubulwa a worship leader who was at ESOM in 2015.
Background
Eternity Source of Music School is one of the modern music schools operational in Uganda at the moment. The school was founded by vocalist, guitarist and producer Daniel Kiyega Innocent who once held the stage name Dan Wonders in his short stint as a musician.
The school started back in 2006 in a two roomed house on Rubaga road before moving to Namirembe road where it took up a full residential property as it premises after the numbers grew from a single student to over 50 students by the end of 2006.
Expansion and incorporation
By 2010 the school had grown tremendously enabling them move to even bigger premises at the Turn of Rubaga road a few metres from former Pride Theatre where they are based now. They started by taking up a full apartment in their new premises which has soon expanded to an entire floor on the building and expansion is still ongoing.
They also opened an in house studio at the premises to make it easy for those who want to record after training with the school to have the opportunity to do so besides facilitating the growth of the production course.
Current stand
The school currently has an enrollment of 502 students taking both private and group lessons with Piano being the most known and enrolled for course. Other popular courses at the Institute include Audio production, vocal and guitar. Since its inception in 2006, the school has graduated close to 500 students in various Other courses offered at ESOM including Sound Engineering, keyboard, Song writing, video editing, playing drums, deejaying to mention but a few. The school has two intakes one in February and the other in August.
Courses offered
Other courses offered at ESOM include Sound Engineering, keyboard, Song writing, video editing, playing drums, deejaying to mention but a few. The school has two intakes for the group classes one in February and the other in August while for the individual classes you can enroll at any time of your choice the year. The school currently has 10 administrative staff and 7 teachers or lecturers having started with just 2 staff members in 2006.
Vision
Their grand plan or vision is to be the largest centre of music solutions in East Africa and beyond. To achieve this a number of activities are planned in the near future including acquiring their own land, starting branches in Entebbe, Masaka, Mbale, Arua, Gulu, Jinja and Mbarara and offering online lessons too. All this, the school plans to achieve within 5 years.
With the unemployment bug biting harder each day, ESOM School of Music prides itself in having equipped many young people with skills that have enabled them earn a decent income on their own. And they are still in it for the long haul as they will continue to fine tune talent and nurture dreams in the music and film world at an affordable cost.
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