Needy musicians Play It Again
9 April 2003
Is there a discarded clarinet in your cupboard? A violin that has been silent for a decade? A neglected trumpet, saxophone, flute? A campaign to retrieve discarded musical instruments for distribution to needy musicians in student orchestras has been launched in Johannesburg.
The Play It Again Foundation – a product of the Orchestra Company, which supports youth orchestras – would prefer donations of symphonic instruments, says Laurie Wapenaar, a director. But any musical instrument is welcome.
They will be distributed among the orchestras that belong to the Youth Symphony Africa Association, a collection of 17 groups from the Western Cape and Gauteng.
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The Orchestra Company is a non-profit organisation whose main aim is to provide a home where young talent can be nourished, guided and provided with performance opportunities.
Half of its annual budget is allocated to the musical education of disadvantaged children. It does this by providing full music scholarships and by running outreach programmes.
Many of the young musicians in the programme do not own musical instruments, mainly because the instruments are expensive. However, there are a lot of talented players from the outreach programmes who would benefit greatly from having their own instruments, says the Orchestra Company's Antoinette Rose.
The company is known for its popular development programme in Soweto, where it provides tuition in orchestral instruments and music theory.
The famed Soweto Music Conservatoire has received most of its musical instruments from donations made by the public, says principal Michael Masote. Funding from organisations like De Beers, Anglo American, the Mandela Children's Fund and National Arts Council also help the school to buy its own instruments. The usual symphonic instruments are taught at the school, as well as piano.
Needy young musicians have benefited from instrument retrieval programmes overseas. The UK's National Foundation for Youth Music, founded in 1999, is funded as a lottery charity. Its retrieval project, "Instrument Amnesty", was initiated as part of the BBC's Millennium Festival Celebrations. In the US, the Mr Holland Opus Foundation, launched in 1996, promotes instrumental music by partnering with businesses, schools and communities.
It is a tradition that The Orchestra Company aims to establish in South Africa. As the Turkish proverb goes: "As the music is, so are the people of the country."
Got an instrument you'd like to donate? Want more info? E-mail Play it Again, or telephone Di Golding at (011) 642-9926.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
