At this moment in time I am keen that my voice is heard, my deep and unswerving love for my country noted and with it my wish for all of our artistic and musical communities to finally work together for the greater good and future of the arts and music. South Africa should be shouting to the heavens and beyond about its musicians, with some of our greatest talents taking the world by storm, Most recently Abel Selaocoe (cellist, composer and singer) and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano)……the list goes on. 

What are MNPO doing and who are they supporting? 

MNPO have awarded proportional financial support to all orchestras in South Africa, (CPO and KZNPO are the only full-time orchestras). Particular orchestras to have benefited include the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra (ECPO) and Free State Symphony Orchestra (FSSO), both of which have not received Department of Sport, Arts and Culture support for many years, enabling a revival of some orchestral activity in these regions (the list goes on and it has been published). The CPO have until this time refused to take the approximately R3 million awarded by MNPO and they are noticeable by their absence and bitter publicity. Not only are they consciously boycotting any involvement with MNPO via refusing funds, but, also prohibiting CPO members from taking part in MNPO. This fractious and divisive situation is threatening collaboration, cross-pollination and diversity for South Africa’s musicians, creating a sour and prohibitive climate, further polarising an already endangered and uncertain orchestral scene. Surely the ideal scenario for our orchestral musicians is for the MNPO and CPO to sit around the table alongside directors of all orchestras to negotiate a way forward for everyone? 

In addition MNPO supports young SA musicians who have already received substantial funding towards overseas study and often provide the “final amount needed in order to make it possible” (up to R100 000 a year). This support is awarded entirely on merit with a clear reporting process based on results and progress. In my personal experience this MNPO support has made overseas study a reality for

students such as cellist Kamogelo Maraba (Soweto) and violinist Pendo Masote (Soweto), amongst others. 

MNPO have published a document listing the more than 60 community projects, music schools, youth orchestras, and other deserving organisations they are supporting, and more recently 12 university departments have been added to this impressive list. A veritable drought for support in the arts has existed in South Africa for years, and finally through MNPO there is support, recognition and in time hopefully even greater consistency and support for more organisations. 

Is the role of Mzansi to replace other orchestras in SA? 

I believe not at all. It is intended as opportunity to showcase and bring together the best available musicians at the time when a tour takes place, and I understand that one of these are planned for each calendar year. If communication and planning were effective between professional and regional orchestras the patch of time the tour took place could be when the other orchestras could cope with certain players being available to tour with MNPO. In this case, it would mean that musicians from every part of South Africa could be represented without compromising regional orchestral calendars, and no one would be left out. 

It feels important to share a little of my journey with you….. 

I am a South African who has been living in the UK for the past twenty-five years. A born and bred Capetonian who studied at UCT and Stellenbosch until winning an ABRSM scholarship for postgraduate study in the UK in 1998. My instrument is the 

viola, and I’m grateful for the world-class education I received from South Africans that enabled me to have the career I am so unbelievably lucky to enjoy. I have been privileged to work full-time in conservatoires across the UK for twenty-two years, as well as specialist music schools, orchestras and the performing sector in many different capacities. Throughout this period I have brought countless groups of students and staff from the UK to perform, teach and run festivals in SA, always sharing, creating and commissioning music with other South Africans. I have fought for South African instrumentalists and singers to obtain awards from UK Conservatoires and organisations that would offer them the opportunity to study abroad, and in addition have been a key person and helping hand initiating many star-studded South African music careers. Almost nine years ago I started the ARCO Project, a long-distance teaching and learning collaboration between the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto (MICM) and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC), where I was Head of Strings at the time. RBC students and staff have been delivering weekly 1:1 online lessons (initially strings only) complementing face-to-face teaching in Soweto since January 2016, and more recently have expanded from violin, viola, cello and double bass to trumpet, trombone, horn, flute,

clarinet, saxophone and voice. RBC students and staff travelled to South Africa several times a year since 2016 to run live festivals in Soweto. The results from the ARCO project and collaboration with MICM have been sensational, with students receiving major scholarships from UK schools, others studying music at tertiary level across SA, and Soweto based ARCO students travelling to the UK to attend festivals, courses and competitions. The ARCO Project was represented at the 2019 Voorkamerfest, Darling and in 2022 and 2023 at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF). ARCO string players and vocalists not only excelled in the SICMF Symphony Orchestra, but delivered their own concert as part of the main festival programme. We have collaborated with wonderful management and teaching staff at MICM for almost nine years, learning so much from their expertise and benefitting from their on the ground support. 

Over the past six years being a member of the Ubuntu Ensemble, an all South African flexible chamber music group has been immensely exciting. We have been at the forefront of performing South African and African music across the UK, and in some cases premiering new and certainly neglected and unknown music. 

My connection with MNPO 

Towards the end of 2022 I had my first invitation from the MNPO to come and lead the viola section for the Beethoven 9 tour with conductor Marin Allsop, and have just been involved with the Joseph Young Mahler 5 and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha tour. I believe that I speak for other colleagues and friends who are also living overseas (of course also those living in SA too) that being part of MNPO has been one of the most precious, rewarding and fulfilling times of our professional lives. It has given us the opportunity to play alongside old friends, make new friends and make music with fellow South Africans, our own people. It’s like being in a pressure cooker of energy and raw passion, and it’s “home”! The large contingent of young players from the National Cadetship Programme (a programme initiated in the 1990’s by the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and Northern Chamber Orchestra (NCO) ) is testament to MNPO’s national rollout in 2022, and it’s unswerving commitment to changing what in the dark past has been a limited representation of black musicians in South African orchestras. The demographic of MNPO truly reflects South Africa’s rainbow nation. Through it’s cadetship and fellowship programme of supporting young South African musicians studying at home and abroad MNPO is focused through further education on creating the next generation of musicians who will invest in South Africa’s orchestras and music community. 

The MNPO needs the encouragement and faith of all South African people, with music and artistic communities working together to nurture and create future generations of musicians. Endemic inequality of musical opportunities and exposure are evident throughout the country, and even in major music centres specific

instrumental expertise is not available. Not only is South Africa hugely challenged as a result of inequality, but, also geography, distance and internet poverty. Distances are so vast and connection to live or online musical expertise so poor that pitifully few young people are exposed or given the opportunity to learn an instrument. The work of MNPO is beginning to address this chasm. MNPO needs instrumental experts across the country to work together to encourage and recruit future experts via holistic and selfless thinking. 

In order to have the time, energy and vision to take an active part in a future plan musicians need platforms within which to collaborate created by MNPO, need to feel appreciated and valued. This appreciation needs to translate both into financial and work situation benefits. For many young and aspiring musicians in South Africa, the music and especially orchestral profession is viewed as an unreliable and not viable career choice. The MNPO has the chance to begin to erode this stalemate through re-igniting music-making across the country, investing in young players and taking care of our already existing precious orchestras. 

I consider music to be a basic human need, sitting alongside housing, water, electricity, food, clothes and education. In fact – it’s the very food of our hearts and souls. For every occasion of life we need and use music. We sing and play music on birthdays, with specific songs symbolising the occasion: weddings, funerals, soccer, rugby cricket, Olympic Games, birth of a baby, new year and every religious occasion across the board…I am not going to try to list all of these. We sing when we are happy, when we are sad and music is an integral part of coping with tragedy and sorrow as we turn to it for solace and inspiration. Music can change everything and its power and ability to heal is beyond what appears logical. In fact, it is almost a mystery as to how music can heal and hold us, with each of us experiencing it in an entirely unique way. Everyone needs music and at the very least we need to give MNPO a chance to work the “magic of music” across this extraordinary country.