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Rumoured death of former PMAN President and renowned flutist Tee Mac Omatshola Iseli (MFR) in Benin City, hits town according to unconfirmed reports reaching TheNewsGuru.
Tee Mac was said to have died in a car accident in Benin City Edo state, with a female friend who drove with him in his car. The friend whose identity could not be ascertained, was reportedly alleged to have caused the accident leading to his rumoured death following her struggle with his car steering over unknown issues in a popular street in Benin city.
Omatshola who combined his first degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, with a specialization in classical music concert performance and philharmonic composition of the University of Lausanne, has a rich career spanning over 40 years, during which he formed numerous bands, including Tee Mac & Afro Collection in the 1970s.
Tee Mac recorded his first LP, United with Polydor International in Germany with his European band Tee Mac United, in the late seventies.
Omatshola hit the global music charts with two songs: “Fly Robin Fly”, and “Get Up & Boogie” (owns 50% of the copy right) and toured extensively with his third band, Silver Convention, in the mid seventies.
He worked with celebrated Nigerian singer Shirley Bassey as her musical arranger and conductor and also worked as a composer for Cidi Croft Enterprise and later for Universal Films in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Even though Omatshola spent a lot of time touring across the globe (Far East, Latin America, Europe, North America and South Africa), he always invested in local Nigerian initiatives, to become one of the pioneers of the Classical Music Society of Nigeria, which eventually founded the Muson Center, Nigeria’s leading music school.
In 2007 Omatshola was elected president of the Musician Union of Nigeria PMAN. He has three children, two sons, a daughter and three grandchildren.
He has invested time and energy into helping develop the Nigerian entertainment industry, as he was in 2009 appointed the Nigerian director of the Motherland Group, (initiated by Michael Jackson’s brother, Marlon, of The Jackson 5) which is getting support from the Lagos State Government to build a historical slave museum in Badagry. Also, in 2011 he was elected chairman of FAMECorp, owned by top Nigerian Musicians and Nollywood stars, to build cinema houses and concert halls all over Nigeria.
Omatshola was awarded the Member of the Federal Republic (MFR), a national honor by late President Yar’adua in 2009 for his vital role in brokering peace with the Niger Delta militants and fighting for their rehabilitation.