The last few months - life as a freelance musician

The last few months I have been living in Jozi working as a freelance musician. It has had its moments and thankfully work has started to pick up in the last few weeks. I have been playing with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Black Tie ensemble. I also made a trip to Cape Town to play with Mike Campbell's Rhythm Orchestra.

A highlight has been playing Timpani in Rossini's Stabat Mater. It was scarey but I held my own. Im so proud of myself. hee. I played it with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and Choir and soloists.
The same weekend that I did that I played for the UNISA National Piano competition in Pretoria (not as a pianist! but in the orchestra that accompanied the concertos of the final round). Olga Rademan, a good friend of mine from UCT was one of the finalists. She played beautifully and I was so proud of her. Here is a picture of her during the rehearsal. Unfortunately I dont have one of her in her performance dress. She looked amazing.

Another highlight was playing Mussorgsky's Pictures At an Exhibition with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. What a fantastic piece of music. I got to play the cymbals and the Tubular bell. The most fun part to play.

This last month I put on a soiree at my house. My mom made Gluhwein, my Dad made butternut soup and I put on a show. I performed solo vibraphone pieces and then I performed some music from my new project The Tholakele Project. I played vibes and sang. Comleladies and Bheshwana two Maskanda guitarists joined me. It was very special to perform for all my friends and family. A very supportive and loving audience. (I will upload photos when I can get my hands on some)

Next week I am playing Takemitsu's Tree line with th JPO. Take a look at the music. Its insane. Ok its not that bad but when I look at it I feel quite lost. I hope I can keep it together in the performance. haha. Fun times.

I played in Mike Campbell's Rhythm Orchestra for the South African Artists for AIDS Awareness concert at the Baxter Theatre. Here is a random pic of my setup.

Global Music Camp Ghana

 After 2 weeks in Germany I was home in Joburg for 3 days and then I was off to Ghana for another amazing musical experience. I was selected to go to the Glomus Camp and Conference to represent the University of Cape Town. The Glomus Camp was a gathering of music students from around the world. There were students and lecturers from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Palestine, Syria, USA, Germany and Ghana. The programme is linked to the Glomus Network and Glomas Masters programme which was started by universities in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. You can read more about it at this website: http://glomus.net/

We spent 2 weeks playing in small ensembles and a big band made up of all the participants. We could choose from a selection of small ensembles, which were The Mali group, the Nordic group, the Arabic group, the choir, the Afro Jazz group and the Dance group. All groups and the big band performed in a concert at the end of the camp.

Arriving in Ghana was very exciting. It was the furthest north in Africa I had ever been. It was also quite a shock for the senses. Intense humid heat, red dust and lots of hooting cars. After we had arrived in Accra we all traveled to Cape Coast(3 hours from Accra)

It took a while for the actual camp to start what with the elaborate opening ceremony that ran late and had lots of musical numbers. We were all dying to play by the time the first workshop started. We had workshops and rehearsals every day at Assasse Pa, a beautiful venue by the sea. We spent the week just jamming and playing music that stretched our rhythmic perception and that made us laugh. We had the odd break for putting our feet in the sea and eating of course but it was mostly music all the way. Ah bliss. We had so much fun!

Our first performance in Cape Coast was a real test but a beautifully symbolic performance. We performed in front of a castle where slaves had been kept before being shipped out to the Americas. We had a tour of the dungeons and the terrible living quarters of the slaves. We started the preparation for the concert with very heavy hearts. The stage was set up right in front of the castle and it was quite something for a global collection of musicians to join together and play in front of a place that represented such discrimination and human rights abuse. We also had an amazing audience made up of the public including many street children who were lying asleep on the ground by the time the concert finished. It was truly special to be part of a concert like this one.

After a week of playing and collaborating we went back to Accra for the conference. This was with the same group of people but it was about the more academic side of Glomus. After a week of play and spontaneity many of us struggled to sit and listen for two days but we pushed through. The presentations were fantastic with subjects ranging from, Exploring intercultural strategies in music by Prof. J.H Kwabena Nketia, Composing for Change by Eva Kunda Neidek and Sustainability and Cultural Development by Guro Heilman. The conference was very stimulating and it inspired me to be around people who think about and work in these fields.

At the end of the conference we did our final performance at the Great Hall at the University of Ghana. We performed under a clear black sky, to a small but captive audience. I was so happy to be performing with such special people. I felt joyful every moment of the performance. “I have arrived”, I thought, “I am living the dream”.

Me playing the Umrhube (mouth bow)

Jam session

Mali group performing

Bobby Mcferrin in Germany

I have to say that performing on a stage with Bobby Mcferrin made me feel like I had reached my goal in life. At the age of 24 to perform with your idol is quite something and I feel truly blessed to have had the experience.

I recently went to Germany to perform with the Chamber Choir of Europe. The choir is made up of freelance singers from England, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Hungary and South Africa(there were 2 of us!) We spent a few days in Essen rehearsing the music under the direction of the amazing and very special Roger Treece. The music was composed by Roger Treece with some input from Bobby. We started the rehearsal process with some circle songs(songs that are composed on the spot built up section by section and cycled). This was such a beautiful way to start the rehearsals because it felt like it was about the music and the beauty of the music not just learning the notes and getting the job done.

The rehearsal process was very intense, we rehearsed from 10am to 10pm for 3 days . We did our first performance at the Essen Philharmonic concert hall. All of us struggled a little because our voices were so tired from rehearsing so much. But it didn't really matter to me because I was on stage with Bobby Mcferrin and the music was beautiful. The amazing thing about Bobby is that he was very quiet when he was back stage, like the quiet guru, but as soon as he was on stage he just worked the audience in his own humble way. Saying funny things and being the entertainer.

From Essen we all traveled to Munich, 6 hours in a car with a terrible cough was not fun. I probably caught some horrible virus from one of the many choir members who were sick. My voice sounded terrible and I felt like I just wanted to sleep for days. So when I arrived in Munich I went to the doctor and he gave me some medicine that saved me. The next night I was on top form to perform at the Gasteig, The Munich Philharmonic which houses 2600 people and the hall was sold out. Amazing!

This concert was the same as the Essen one but this time I got my chance to sing solo with Bobby. What he does at most of his concerts is asks the audience if anyone wants to sing something with him and then he sings along. This time because he had a choir he asked us and I shot my hand up as quick as I could. I had decided that I wanted to sing a South African song to show people something a little different. I sang a song called Uyandibiza, a beautiful Xhosa song about being called by your ancestors. Of course no one understood the words. Bobby struggled a little to find something to sing along and so it was kind of a solo for me. I didn't care though. I was sitting across from Bobby singing a song that meant a lot to me and even though I was in front of 2600 people it felt like it was just him and me. Very special.

This experience with the choir was very special. It was such a great group of people and it was amazing to meet so many different people from all over Europe. The thing that I will remember though is what Roger Treece told us during a rehearsal. He said that we are so blessed to be performing music that we love in a world filled with hardship and terrible things. He is right. I am so blessed to be a musician and give the gift of enjoyment in a time when joy and love are so important.

Rehearsing with Roger Treece

The Chamber Choir of Europe

The fantastic Roger Treece

Bobby and Me

My adventures

 A friend of mine always starts her blog with a song of the moment. I think this is quite a good idea, so my song for the moment is Jammu Africa by Ismael Lo. I heard it played in a club last night. This club is a new discovery of mine, to my shock I found out that it has been open for a while. It was a gem waiting for me to find it. It's called Sankayi, the owners are Congolese and it has a large African foreigner following. The DJ played a jiving selection of Congolese, Nigerian, Mozambican and South African hits that got me pulling some moves on the dance floor. Last night was the opening night of “World Music Live”, an event that is organised by a friend Shoni. It was hosted by Nicky B from Khaya Fm and the band that featured was a Nigerian band lead by saxophonist and singer Olufemi. The band had a huge horn section and a rhythm section that was ripping apart the grooves. I was amazed to know that all the musicians were Nigerian and living in Joburg. I plan on going as often as I can to support this new event and to enjoy the music that is played in no other club in Joburg that I am aware of. I would definitely suggest this place to African music lovers.

Other than enjoying African club vibes, I have been busy finishing up the mixing of the album for my latest musical adventure, The Tholakele Project. It is so exciting to see this project progress from the composition and arrangement stage to hearing the finished product. It has been a long journey and I have learnt so much in the process. It has been very challenging for me to bring together musicians from such different contexts to me, to create a sound that works. The most inspiring thing has been working with some amazing Maskanda musicians. They are very established and well respected in their musical community and I felt quite intimidated bringing them together for my project. What was very difficult for me as a white, English speaking South African was trying to respect their culture and musical background but also making sure the music was what I needed it to be. It was quite interesting running rehearsals in a mixture of English and Zulu. There were times in the rehearsal processes when they got so excited and started talking amongst themselves in Zulu, leaving me to try and follow hand gestures and the very little Zulu that I know. All in all it was amazing to work with musicians who just love music. They put all of themselves into the music and you can hear that when you listen to it. I cant wait to release it and show people what happens when you put a group of people from different contexts and so much passion in one room to make music. 

Here is a selection of photographs from the recording session.

(Photo's taken by Suzy Bernstein)

Lahla's ikonstina

Maqhude

Comeladies/iTholo

Lahla

Me

 

Adventurous Birds

and this is how it goes

Being a musician I thought it fitting to have a blog about music and the other things that go on in my music filled head. As a child the first music I was exposed to was The Sound of Music and What shall we do with the Drunken Sailor (a song I learned on recorder) Let's just forget about the latter. Some people may think I am mad to love The Sound of Music but I suppose that is what happens when you watched something over and over, again and again and again. I just need to listen to Do Re Mi and everything is ok.That explains the name of this blog.
So welcome to the inside of my head. Don't get lost.