Cornell Choral Director Scott Tucker routinely teaches the works of Western classical artists like Brahms and Handel to his students in the Glee Club and Chorus. But lately he has been directing them in songs of African origin and in an African language.

Tucker is warming them up for what promises to be a red-hot musical performance at Cornell on Sunday, Feb. 9, titled "One Voice: A Concert of African Songs by Samite of Uganda." The internationally acclaimed musician, singer and composer will perform at 3 p.m. in Cornell's Bailey Hall Auditorium, backed by the Cornell Glee Club and Chorus, as well as his own band. All proceeds will go to AIDS Work Inc. of Tompkins County.

Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door; students pay $5. Tickets can be purchased on campus at the Willard Straight Hall Ticket Office or at the Ticket Center at Clinton House in downtown Ithaca.

Samite (pronounced "Samit‡y") is a master of traditional African instruments like the kalimba (thumb piano), litungu (seven-stringed Kenyan instrument) and flute, all of which he'll play in the Cornell concert. He will sing about 10 traditional Ugandan songs in his native language Luganda, explaining in English the meaning of each song to his Bailey Hall audience as he has done for Tucker's choral students.

"Samite is a very entertaining storyteller," Tucker said, "and each of the songs he will perform has a kind of moral to it." For example, in "Ani Oyo?" a little girl who has fallen down a well continually calls out "ani oyo?" which means "who is there?" The song's message is that had she remained silent in her suffering, no one could have helped her. In "Wasuze Otya?" ("how did you sleep?") Samite poses this question, which children might ask their parents at the dawn of a new day, to remind us that we should take care of our parents.

Eric Saidel, a recent Cornell graduate and president of the Glee Club, said, "Samite's music is amazing. Simple and beautiful, moving and narrative. You cannot listen to it, much less perform it, without moving your body or experiencing the rhythms."

Of recent rehearsals, he added, " I have never enjoyed singing this much before."

Melody Nelson of the Chorus added, "Samite said that when we rehearsed one of his songs, 'Webake,' it brought tears to his eyes. We hope it does the same for our audience."

Samite, who records with Connecticut-based Xenophile Records, has performed at many fund-raisers and said he is especially pleased to be performing for AIDS Work, an Ithaca-based organization providing counseling and education for people infected and affected by AIDS and HIV, because, "In my country, a lot of people have died of AIDS."

Samite learned to play flute as a child from his late grandfather, who he said continues to inspire him. After losing a brother to political violence, Samite fled his homeland in 1982 for Kenya, where he performed with the African Heritage Band before embarking on a solo career. He emigrated to the United States in 1987 and makes his home in Ithaca.

Samite has released three compact discs in the United States. His latest, Silina Musango, was listed by College Music Journal as one of the top 25 "world music" recordings of 1996 and held that listing's No. 2 spot for one week.

Jon Pareles of The New York Times has called Samite "a musician of almost transcendent quiet strength," and Jim Washburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote that at one Samite concert, "his eight-number performance earned two standing ovations." Of Samite's first Bailey Hall performance, Peggy Haine wrote in The Ithaca Journal, "His great magic was turning the entire hall into his instrument . . . he wooed the audience into the resonance of his circle."

At that Ithaca performance, Samite was opening for South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo. His other U.S. venues have included Woodstock '94 and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where the normally shy and reserved artist said he received his most affecting tribute.

"A radio interviewer told me his five-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome, is deeply affected by recordings of my music and loves to dance to them," Samite recalled. "The interviewer, who was a very large man, then proceeded to demonstrate just how his daughter dances when she hears my music. Tears were running down his face -- and mine."

This summer Samite will make his first extended return to Uganda since fleeing his homeland for work on a PBS special, Song of the Refugee, which will feature his compositions and will take him to refugee camps in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. He also plans another Cornell performance this spring, a jazz concert in Barnes Hall.

"One Voice: A Concert of African Songs by Samite of Uganda" is made possible by grants from the Cornell Council for the Arts, Institute for African Development and Department of Music.