Classical music, for centuries the domain of Western musicians, is undergoing an astounding transformation from the grassroots up as more and more black youngsters embrace everything from concertos to arias.
And it’s happening right here in the Eastern Cape.
I spoke to three acclaimed local talents to find out what drew them to play the violin or sing operas or even to conduct music, often against seemingly impossible odds, and to discover how it has changed their lives.
Anyone who has seen violinist Siseko Pame, 33, perform will attest to his musical excellence. Man and instrument almost blend into one.
But for Pame, who grew up in Duncan Village, the path to classical excellence has been an uphill one, filled with huge obstacles.
But back to the beginning – he stumbled across the notoriously difficult violin quite by chance.
“Three friends and I wanted to record our first demo and approached Richard Lento who was running a music academy in Duncan Village in 1999. We sang rap music and we thought the academy was a recording studio,” said Pame.
Lento, a self-taught maestro, was unable to help them record their music, but invited them to start a quartet under his tutelage.
“We decided we wanted to try it and he lent us three violins and a viola, but my three friends quit after a while. They said they were rap artists.”
Pame stayed. He says it is because he found the instrument to be calming.
“I would walk from Alphendale Senior Secondary School to the academy and lock myself in a small practise room and play.
“It helped me escape a lot of things in the township. My neighbours and peers joined gangs. Some have been murdered, some were arrested and others are in jail,” says Pame, who recalls being assaulted by the Niggaz gang.
“I was with 12 of my friends who were part of The Nasty Boys gang, but none of them helped me or protected me because I had not joined their gang.
“So music was an escape for me.”
Pame’s father “did not believe in the violin” and his mother, a vegetable hawker, had no money to buy him one or to pay for music exams, but the young musician persevered by playing on Lento’s borrowed violin.
“I actually still owe him a violin,” laughs Pame, who now lives in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
“I could not afford one – it would have cost about R1100 – and so I could not practise at home and it took me two years to learn one music book, but Mr Lento taught me for free.
“I could also not afford to pay for the exams and so I don’t have any formal qualifications.”
But his talent and technique spoke for themselves and in 2004 he was invited to play with the East London Classical Players.
“I was the only black guy attending regularly.”
Pame joined a church youth orchestra as well as Gospel Unlimited – and his career took off.
He played for then President Thabo Mbeki, became involved in choral music production and also performed for President Jacob Zuma before forming duo Wise Fools with fellow musician Sipho Mtsatse.
“We had a unique sound – violin, guitar and singing – and played many gigs.”
Then, while living in Port Elizabeth where he did a course in construction, he finally managed to buy his own violin.
Last year, Pame moved to Johannesburg, hoping to further his career and to be taken more seriously than in his home province where he has played countless gigs including at weddings, music festivals and what he calls “mansion parties” entertaining guests at swanky parties.
“They would pay me R10000 or R12000 at music festivals, but Johannesburg musicians coming to the Eastern Cape would get R40000 or R100000.”
So he decided to move upcountry.
He released an album called Ilanga (The Sun) in June last year, but is still hoping for more publicity and more sales.
“It is mostly vocal and what I would term ethos-soul or Afro-soul. It has a spiritual approach and has violins playing, but it has not been received in the way I had hoped.”
Although he’s now thinking of looking for a job in construction, the musician still believes there is a gap for young black classical musicians.
“I think it will take a while for perceptions to change because it is still seen as white people’s music.
“My songs are in Xhosa and I use violin – but most black people don’t see how a violin fits in. People still get a surprise when I play a violin because they don’t associate it with a black person, but I believe if more black kids took up classical music they would have good opportunities.”
For Mdantsane-raised opera singer Steve Mavuka, 30, who has a performance diploma and an honours degree in opera from the University of Cape Town, his love affair with the classical genre began when he was a teenager in high school.
Also known as the Eastern Cape tenor, Mavuka has performed in Europe as well as Mauritius, the Seychelles and Madagascar.
He says he was drawn to opera singing after listening to Pavarotti and Placido Domingo CDs provided by his teacher when he was 15.
“I got fascinated with opera. I listened to arias every day. I took part in the Tirisano Choral School competitions and in matric came first in the national tenor category.”
And although a young Mavuka enjoyed house music and even dee-jayed at events, opera always came first.
“Opera gave me a different feeling. It was a talent God had given me, so I decided to study it.”
Now a vocalist with the Northern Cape Provincial Police Band in Kimberley, where he also trains other voices, plays the tuba and conducts the orchestra, Mavuka says opera is underrated in this country.
“There is not much work. It is not like R&B with its high marketing. I think the answer is to write South African operas,” says Mavuka who has studied Italian, French and German.
“I am busy writing my own solo composition called Mio Viaggio, which means My Journey. I think things are changing and South Africans are winning competitions and getting stronger in opera. It’s not elitist anymore.”
Accomplished East London musician, music teacher and orchestra conductor Richard Lento, 55, says classical music is all the rage for young black pupils at the former Model C schools he teaches.
“At schools like Hudson Park Primary and the Cambridge schools where I teach music and under the new dispensation where there are more resources, black kids are into string instruments. These days it is fashionable!”
Both Pame and Mavuka are great talents in his eyes.
“I gave Siseko his first violin to play. He came from a very poor family just like me and his solo career just took off. I am very proud of him.
“And Mavuka! That boy is so amazing! When you listen to him, you just want to hear more. He has great attitude and always does his best.”
Lento, who is the director of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Orchestra, says 75% of the orchestra is black.
“I train them and keep them up to speed,” he says
Lento also teaches violin, viola, cello, double bass and classical guitar at Legends School of Contemporary Music and helped pave the way for driven black musicians who are transforming the industry.
He himself is a pioneer black classical musician. Cutting a pathway open was incredibly difficult. He was turned away from the East London Technical College in 1990 when he tried to register to study music.
“I was told that because I was black there was no place for me and so I went to the library to learn about classical music and how to understand the language of music.
“But in 1991 the college asked me to teach there and that year I had 61 black students,” says Lento, who had taught himself to play a borrowed guitar when he was 10 and growing up in Mooiplaas.
He finally earned his Associate Trinity College of London diploma with distinction.
“Classical music is a foundation, but once you have it you can play just about anything and young musicians in my orchestra are versatile and can play jazz and hip-hop.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Bringing down walls in classical sound
And it’s happening right here in the Eastern Cape.
I spoke to three acclaimed local talents to find out what drew them to play the violin or sing operas or even to conduct music, often against seemingly impossible odds, and to discover how it has changed their lives.
Anyone who has seen violinist Siseko Pame, 33, perform will attest to his musical excellence. Man and instrument almost blend into one.
But for Pame, who grew up in Duncan Village, the path to classical excellence has been an uphill one, filled with huge obstacles.
But back to the beginning – he stumbled across the notoriously difficult violin quite by chance.
“Three friends and I wanted to record our first demo and approached Richard Lento who was running a music academy in Duncan Village in 1999. We sang rap music and we thought the academy was a recording studio,” said Pame.
Lento, a self-taught maestro, was unable to help them record their music, but invited them to start a quartet under his tutelage.
“We decided we wanted to try it and he lent us three violins and a viola, but my three friends quit after a while. They said they were rap artists.”
Pame stayed. He says it is because he found the instrument to be calming.
“I would walk from Alphendale Senior Secondary School to the academy and lock myself in a small practise room and play.
“It helped me escape a lot of things in the township. My neighbours and peers joined gangs. Some have been murdered, some were arrested and others are in jail,” says Pame, who recalls being assaulted by the Niggaz gang.
“I was with 12 of my friends who were part of The Nasty Boys gang, but none of them helped me or protected me because I had not joined their gang.
“So music was an escape for me.”
Pame’s father “did not believe in the violin” and his mother, a vegetable hawker, had no money to buy him one or to pay for music exams, but the young musician persevered by playing on Lento’s borrowed violin.
“I actually still owe him a violin,” laughs Pame, who now lives in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
“I could not afford one – it would have cost about R1100 – and so I could not practise at home and it took me two years to learn one music book, but Mr Lento taught me for free.
“I could also not afford to pay for the exams and so I don’t have any formal qualifications.”
But his talent and technique spoke for themselves and in 2004 he was invited to play with the East London Classical Players.
“I was the only black guy attending regularly.”
Pame joined a church youth orchestra as well as Gospel Unlimited – and his career took off.
He played for then President Thabo Mbeki, became involved in choral music production and also performed for President Jacob Zuma before forming duo Wise Fools with fellow musician Sipho Mtsatse.
“We had a unique sound – violin, guitar and singing – and played many gigs.”
Then, while living in Port Elizabeth where he did a course in construction, he finally managed to buy his own violin.
Last year, Pame moved to Johannesburg, hoping to further his career and to be taken more seriously than in his home province where he has played countless gigs including at weddings, music festivals and what he calls “mansion parties” entertaining guests at swanky parties.
“They would pay me R10000 or R12000 at music festivals, but Johannesburg musicians coming to the Eastern Cape would get R40000 or R100000.”
So he decided to move upcountry.
He released an album called Ilanga (The Sun) in June last year, but is still hoping for more publicity and more sales.
“It is mostly vocal and what I would term ethos-soul or Afro-soul. It has a spiritual approach and has violins playing, but it has not been received in the way I had hoped.”
Although he’s now thinking of looking for a job in construction, the musician still believes there is a gap for young black classical musicians.
“I think it will take a while for perceptions to change because it is still seen as white people’s music.
“My songs are in Xhosa and I use violin – but most black people don’t see how a violin fits in. People still get a surprise when I play a violin because they don’t associate it with a black person, but I believe if more black kids took up classical music they would have good opportunities.”
For Mdantsane-raised opera singer Steve Mavuka, 30, who has a performance diploma and an honours degree in opera from the University of Cape Town, his love affair with the classical genre began when he was a teenager in high school.
Also known as the Eastern Cape tenor, Mavuka has performed in Europe as well as Mauritius, the Seychelles and Madagascar.
He says he was drawn to opera singing after listening to Pavarotti and Placido Domingo CDs provided by his teacher when he was 15.
“I got fascinated with opera. I listened to arias every day. I took part in the Tirisano Choral School competitions and in matric came first in the national tenor category.”
And although a young Mavuka enjoyed house music and even dee-jayed at events, opera always came first.
“Opera gave me a different feeling. It was a talent God had given me, so I decided to study it.”
Now a vocalist with the Northern Cape Provincial Police Band in Kimberley, where he also trains other voices, plays the tuba and conducts the orchestra, Mavuka says opera is underrated in this country.
“There is not much work. It is not like R&B with its high marketing. I think the answer is to write South African operas,” says Mavuka who has studied Italian, French and German.
“I am busy writing my own solo composition called Mio Viaggio, which means My Journey. I think things are changing and South Africans are winning competitions and getting stronger in opera. It’s not elitist anymore.”
Accomplished East London musician, music teacher and orchestra conductor Richard Lento, 55, says classical music is all the rage for young black pupils at the former Model C schools he teaches.
“At schools like Hudson Park Primary and the Cambridge schools where I teach music and under the new dispensation where there are more resources, black kids are into string instruments. These days it is fashionable!”
Both Pame and Mavuka are great talents in his eyes.
“I gave Siseko his first violin to play. He came from a very poor family just like me and his solo career just took off. I am very proud of him.
“And Mavuka! That boy is so amazing! When you listen to him, you just want to hear more. He has great attitude and always does his best.”
Lento, who is the director of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Orchestra, says 75% of the orchestra is black.
“I train them and keep them up to speed,” he says
Lento also teaches violin, viola, cello, double bass and classical guitar at Legends School of Contemporary Music and helped pave the way for driven black musicians who are transforming the industry.
He himself is a pioneer black classical musician. Cutting a pathway open was incredibly difficult. He was turned away from the East London Technical College in 1990 when he tried to register to study music.
“I was told that because I was black there was no place for me and so I went to the library to learn about classical music and how to understand the language of music.
“But in 1991 the college asked me to teach there and that year I had 61 black students,” says Lento, who had taught himself to play a borrowed guitar when he was 10 and growing up in Mooiplaas.
He finally earned his Associate Trinity College of London diploma with distinction.
“Classical music is a foundation, but once you have it you can play just about anything and young musicians in my orchestra are versatile and can play jazz and hip-hop.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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