Huruma Rainbow Singers (HRS) is an association of singers established to promote choral music in Tanzania. Established in September 2004 by 25 founding members, HRS is legally registered (Number BST/2158) with the National Arts Council of Tanzania (BASATA). Its current members form a standard mixed amateur choir that performs choral works of eclectic nature for the purpose of entertaining, educating, sensitizing, business promotion, as well as fundraising for charities in society.
Why choral music? Choral music has been sidelined and ignored in Tanzania. For a long time, ithas been left to exist practically nowhere apart from church circles. The society has been denied this type of music, as promoters and local musicians have concentrated on jazz and hip-hop music. As a result, there are neither professional nor amateur choir competitions and festivals in Tanzania. Talented choir singers and trainers are denied opportunities to exhibit their traits and advance their skills. What is even worse, some of these talented ‘musicians’ have died poor while they possessed this wonderful knowledge. Music is not taught in schools as a major subject. Even where it is taught, it is done in the form of singing classes; not music education. And in most cases, it is done by incompetent teachers. Even a few so-called musicians, who are currently famous in various beats, are not trained musicians. Most of them are talented but untrained soloists, vocalists and the like. There are no Tanzanian choral groups that have been taking part in international festivals held in other parts of the world. As such, the society has been denied a vital developmental contribution that choirs would have made through propagation, promotion and sensitisation by singing. Indeed, there has been a musical vacuum in this area.
