The Artscape Theatre in Cape Town has embarked on an initiative to better and develop jazz musicians.
The theatre will be running online master classes from Monday for young musicians who auditioned to perform in the Artscape Youth Jazz Festival.
Festival Director, Amanda Tiffin, says performances will be recorded and posted online from around mid-October and will be free to watch.
“We’ve got Kelly Bell doing a brass workshop. We have Frank Paco doing a drum workshop, all the way from Reunion Island and we have Shannon Mowday doing a workshop from Norway.
It is the beauty of doing it online. And Nomfundo Xaluva who is going to be doing a music business workshop. So we have a full week of workshops every day there’s at least one and sometimes two.”
Meanwhile the 28th edition of the Arts Alive Festival officially kicked off this week, and because of restrictions on gatherings, many digital platforms will carry the productions.
On Sunday, Jazz on the Lake in Johannesburg will be held virtually.
The concert will feature performances from award-winning South Africa artists Zoe Modiga, Shekhinah, Andile Yenana, Blaq Diamond, Thandi Ntulu, Ami Faku and others.
Teacher and pianist, Andile Yenana, says the lockdown created a lot of anxiety for him.
“I remember from lockdown stage 5 will I ever come out of this, alive? Will the music industry still be there? We are waiting for one and what happens after one will it ever be normal?”
For the first time in its 28-year history, the annual Arts Alive International Festival will run for three consecutive months on digital platforms from 13 September until 12 December, instead of the usual month-long affair. #ArtsAlive ^LM pic.twitter.com/KnUMqmENUh
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) September 11, 2020
