SALUTING A LEGEND: Mlungisi Zulu (on table), Tinyiko Phambuka (left) and Kgaugelo Mpiyane. SALUTING A LEGEND: Mlungisi Zulu (on table), Tinyiko Phambuka (left) and Kgaugelo Mpiyane.
MASOTE’S DREAM
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Dagmar Slagmolen
CAST: Thapelo Mohapi Oora Motsikoe, Nontsikelelo Ndzume, Neo Tinyiko Phambuka, Nhlanhla Xipu, Kgaugelo Mpyane, Boitumelo Ntantiso, Lesley Jennings, Mlungisi Zulu, Desmond Polanka
VENUE: Soweto Theatre
UNTIL: July 26
RATING: ****
This is the story of one of South Africa’s iconic musicians, Matlhaela Michael Masote, who during apartheid founded the first black youth orchestra. The Soweto Youth Orchestra, now named the Soweto Symphony Orchestra, also gave birth to the Soweto String Quartet.
It was when Dutch director Dagmar Slagmolen met the musician last April that she was determined to tell his life story. She teamed up with Masote’s son, Kutlwano (who did the musical arrangement), and the Dutch artistic company Orkater to create this production with nine South African actors and musicians who tell the story of one man, his hopeless dream and his fight against a vicious system determined to keep him in the gutter.
Masote’s love with music began at 11 when he heard renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin perform in Soweto. Then he had to find the means to find an instrument so that he could practice on something other than wooden planks, find someone from the white community willing to teach him and find a way to teach others and form an orchestra.
Slagmolen has applied a storytelling style that works wonderfully as live music streams from the sidelines and the most exquisite voices emerge from the singers/actors who tell this inspiring story.
On completing his matric, Masote was denied the chance to study music at a tertiary institution in South Africa. So he went to study at the Royal School of Music in London, where he obtained a licentiate in violin teaching in 1973. It was only in 1998 that Unisa awarded him his B Mus degree, making him the first black South African to obtain such a degree. He received an Honorary Licentiate in music from Unisa in 2005.
l Shows Tues, Wed and Thurs at 11am; Thurs, Fri and Sat at 8pm and 3pm on Sun.