Local Fulbright scholar will use music to teach about HIV

NEW YORK — Instead of getting a 9-5 desk job after college, Andrew Magill will travel to Africa and record an album.
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The 2005 Reynolds High graduate won a 2009 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship.

The grant will combine his passion for music with his interests in international relations and public health care issues.

“I have been really upset about the misinformation surrounding HIV/AIDS,” said Magill, who graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in May. “I think this is a way I can maybe narrow the gap of information. I think music has proven time and time again that it can do that in a lot of different ways.”

One of the four students from across the nation selected for the fellowship, Magill will spend next year in Lilongwe, Malawi, working with the UNC Project-Malawi.

He will collect narratives about HIV/AIDS from Malawian people affected by the virus. Then, collaborating with Malawian musicians, he will create a music album that uses the narratives to explore different issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African country.

Magill hopes his album addresses issues such as the social stigma placed on victims of the virus and Western versus traditional medicine.

Proceeds from album sales will go to AIDS social service networks in Malawi.

“This project was really an attempt to merge my interests in music, healthcare and African people,” Magill said. “I decided to think big because I was graduating in May, and I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do.”

Magill grew up in a musical household. His parents play traditional Irish music, and he's been playing the fiddle for most of his life. He also sings and plays the guitar.

Magill became interested in African social and health care issues after studying abroad in Ghana, and he decided he wanted to return to the continent.

Applicants for the Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship submitted a project proposal, which was reviewed by a committee of experts and academics. Magill was one of 80 to apply.

Singer Santigold and members of the rock bands Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend and My Chemical Romance reviewed the applications and identified the most qualified.

“We chose really the very best proposals and the best students for these awards,” said Rosalind Swenson of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, part of the U.S. Department of State. “These people that go abroad — particularly the mtvU people that go abroad — they are viewed as cultural ambassadors for the United States.”

As part of his fellowship, mtvU and mtvU.com will feature videos, podcasts and a blog of Magill's experience in Malawi.

Magill just hopes he's able to get his message across through his music.

“I just want to make a great album people can be jazzed about,” he said. “When they hear it I want them to think, ‘Wow, that's great music,' and they learn about HIV/AIDS.”