This concert opens with the African Music and Dance Ensemble Performance class performing repertoire that showcases the stylistic and instrumental diversity of traditional East African musical cultures. In the second half of the concert, the Middlebury Afropop Band performs original compositions and arrangements of classic and contemporary popular songs from all over Africa. The band uses pop and rock instrumentation as well as styles that blend traditional African with Western and/or Afro-diasporic musical idioms. Both groups highlight the dynamic, communal, and interactive nature of African societies.