Meet Kristian Katele, the Musician Helping Schools in the DRC Grow a Greener Tomorrow
This blog was written by Mariam Kabamba, eePRO Moderator for the Global EE Group.
Congolese musician Kristian Katele uses his musical talent for the green cause. His dream: to use music to make Congo "a giant fruit tree nursery!"
How can this be achieved? By organizing school visits, playing Green Piano Recitals and occasionally raising
awareness among schoolchildren about the planting of fruit trees.
Who is Kristan Katele the Green Pianist?
In the 80s, Kristian Katele became interested in music—organ, piano, flute, mandolin. From middle school, he was fascinated by sounds. He listened to a lot of 33 rpm records of the time, and developed a weakness for Beethoven, Mozart and many other great names in music. Young Kristian is known in his school as someone who spends most of his time playing the piano.
Having grown up in age and art, and benefiting from the recognition of his peers, the man nicknamed "Chopin" or "the king of the left hand", Kristian imagined and transformed his ideas into projects: "Green Pianist" and "Congo Mega Nursery." They are two ideas that feed each other and grow together. "It's about using your dexterity in manipulating the piano to call on the audience to plant fruit trees. The sound expression will bring the plant to life," explains the artist.
It is the beautiful landscapes of the Congo that inspire him. The artist does not refrain from exalting the beauty of Congolese greenery. Drawing on the possibilities offered by the piano during his various trips, Katele composes several series of music: Travel Diary (2011), A Paradise in the Heart of Africa (2017) and many other masterpieces.
With his vein thus found, Katele went so far as to invent the Green Piano Concerto concept. For him, it is an "event whose purpose is to communicate to the public the urgency and the need to plant fruit trees".
The green piano concertos organized in primary and secondary schools are always a success, and many primary and secondary school students from the city of Lubumbashi take part. Other visits have been organized in Kolwezi with the same leitmotif: reconciling music for the environment! "We will play the piano and raise awareness about reforestation," Kristian insists. He is full of imagination: "In the end, we want to obtain seedlings to store in nurseries, which we will later use in the construction of public children's parks."
By combining his musical talent and his ecological commitment, Kristian is not fighting for himself, but for future generations. From this point of view, Katele is one of the essential artists of our time.
The schoolchildren are very motivated to attend the mini piano recitals, and the practice of planting fruit trees as demonstrated during the visit by Kristian Katele. Many schoolchildren understand that it is important and interesting to plant a few fruit trees every year.
The lesson to be learned from his initiative is to raise awareness of the need to plant trees. An initiative to be welcomed, because through this gesture, the artist tries to provide a solution to an urgent problem in this 21st century. A noble act that we should all support.
Kristian Katele's artistic approach focuses on music to connect his audience to the natural riches of Congo and Africa. He uses piano music to raise awareness among his students about planting fruit trees in school and urban nurseries, in collaboration with the government. So far, he has visited 14 schools in Kolwezi and more than 50 schools, boarding schools and educational centers in Lubumbashi, raising awareness of the cause among more than 12,000 young people.
Each student in each school plants at least one (1) tree per school year. And ideally it would be a fruit tree because it is easy for everyone to preserve the seeds or the stone of a fruit. This is a collective effort that involves everyone—students take the lead, teachers support by modeling the way, and parents walk alongside their children every step of the journey. In the end, we see how simple it can be to involve everyone in reforestation, and that’s exactly the passion of Kristian Katele. Through piano recitals and beautiful images of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kristian Katele inspires students, teachers, and parents to plant at least one tree each school year.
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