Collection: Adegoke, Taiwo

I am Adegoke Taiwo Oluwagbemiga. I am a classical guitarist, a composer, an arranger of African folk songs, and a classical guitar teacher. I was born in Oshogbo, Osun State, Southwest Nigeria, in 1992. I belong to the Yoruba tribe.

I love African music and found much interest in playing different African styles on the guitar, such as Soukou, High Life, and Afrojuju. In addition, I began to be interested in playing classical music on the guitar in 2011.

I find classical guitar music most interesting and touching, which made me fall in love with it. It brings me so much joy and fulfilment.

I started as a self-taught guitarist and kept on improving. I am the founder of the Chocolate Africa Classical Guitar Platoon, a group of classical guitarists with the vision of creating interest for the classical guitar and its music in Africa. It is also our mission to teach the classical guitar, especially to children. Part of this endeavour includes arranging traditional African folk music and making it available as sheet music for the guitar to preserve our musical culture for generations to come and share it as a source of inspiration to the rest of the world. The Chocolate African Classical Guitar Platoon, together with professional classical guitarists from Germany and with the support of the Goethe institute Nigeria, held a free workshop and masterclasses for the classical guitar to the public – the first in Nigeria.

As a composer, I have written several classical guitar compositions and created Nigerian traditional folk music arrangements for guitar solo, duo, trio, and quartet. In addition to creations for the guitar, I have also written several works for guitar combined with other instruments. These have been performed concerts in Nigeria and countries such as the United States of America, Germany, Slovenia, Japan and others.