In order to raise funds for The Vusi Mahlasela Foundation and The Casterbridge Music Development Academy, the world renowned Vusi Mahlasela was joined on stage by some local heros for an evening of great music.
The Casterbridge Music Development Academy
“If there’s one thing we’re utterly passionate about, it’s the empowerment of our community – and the world at large. We may still be young, but our appetite for enabling South Africa’s future generation has seen us achieve a great many things in the past three years”
When the Casterbridge Music Development Academy (CMDA) opened its doors in 2010, the idea was to provide a platform for local children, especially from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, to develop an interest in music and the performing arts: an idea that they hoped would impact their lives positively.
The result has been phenomenal. Young adults in Kabokweni and surrounds are starting to harness their talents and take charge of their futures.
In the last few years, they’ve produced a high calibre of musicians and bands who can boast to having performed alongside international acts as well as several local South African greats. When they’re not rubbing shoulders with well known local musicians, they spend their free time prepping for performances at corporate, private and public events, including several local festivals in the Lowveld area.
Hubs
As a result of grants received from the Department of Arts and Culture, the Department of Culture, Sports and Recreation and the National Lottery they have in the last 18 months been able to open several music ‘Hubs’ in the Lowveld. A Hub is a centre where young people aged 12 to 25 are offereg the opportunity to attend free music lessons. This facility is offered during the school term, weekdays between 2pm and 5pm. There are Hubs at the following locations: Masoyi, KaBokweni, Zwelisha, Hazyview, Mashishing and Nelspruit. The Nelspruit Hub will be re-positioning in KaNyamazane in the near future.
Each Hub is managed by a professional music coach, and there is an extensive network of music coaches in various genres who are employed to teach members. Lessons are offered in many musical instruments including guitar, percussion, piano and keyboard, marimbas and djembes, recorder and also vocals. Music theory lessons are offered with the support of 2Enable, and there are already a large number of students signing up to take UNISA exams.
About Vusi Mahlasela
Vusi grew up in the Mamelodi township, just outside of Pretoria, South Africa, where he still resides. He began to write songs of justice, of freedom, of revolution, of love, of peace and of life. He joined a poetry group, The Ancestors of Africa, and also joined the Congress of South African Writers, a group of like-minded artists and writers, including Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer who paid for Vusi’s first guitar lessons.
At this point, his political activism truly began. For the “crime” of writing songs of freedom and human dignity, Vusi was held in solitary confinement; he was harassed by the police repeatedly. Many of his friends fled the country. Through this struggle, his songwriting became not only prolific but also healing for himself and for his listeners. And as Nadine Gordimer so vividly puts it, “Vusi sings as a bird does, in total response to being alive.” He simply became known as “The Voice.”
