A WEEK ahead of the annually anticipated Standard Bank Joy of Jazz international rendezvous, the shindig’s director invited a select group of South African youth aspiring for a career in music to a business masterclass at the Joburg Theatre.
Attendees ranging from students of South West Gauteng TVET College to the infectious Tshwane University of Technology Masters in Music student Rorisang Sechele, brought curious energy to the Braamfontein venue as the event’s organizers exposed them to panels comprising of experts and practitioners from diverse pursuits of the music ecosystem.
Engaging sessions facilitated by storyteller Pilani Bubu, tackled topics dealing with Risk Capital for Culture, From Classroom to Stage and Purpose Value versus Industry Value.
The panellists also included musicians such as Vuma Levin, Dr Phuti Sepuru, Ziza Mufti, Tumi Mogorosi, Internet Athi and Andile Manana.
The workshop had commenced with a welcome address by Standard Bank South Africa’s Sponsorships Manager, Dianne Graney, before the first panel consisting of SAMRO CEO Anabell Labethe and project managers Aysha Waja and Violet Maila related their experiences and imparted advice about the industry to the enthusiastic participants.
Inter alia, the attendees were tipped about principles such as compliance; the imperativeness of discipline and technical phrases such as unique selling points. They in turn enquired about miscellany ranging from where to apply for funding, to why it is important for musicians to further their studies.
One of the panellists who piqued the young audience’s collective interest was erstwhile Yugoslavian violinist Ziza Muftic, who related anecdotes of how she came to build and nurture her brand and identity as a musician after initially having emigrated to Johannesburg in the early 1990s while not even able to utter a sentence in English.
Muftic related the proverbial biography of emigrants who leave their nativity to seek greener pastures, in her case: leaving a then war-torn country while a teenager; caught in betwixt career choices (music or fashion); earning income the unglamorous way as a packer at Pick n Pay; and ultimately enrolling to study at WITS until she found her footing over time.
“Every single story is super interesting,” Muftic imparted by the manner of exhorting the youngsters to plot their own paths and identities.
Another panellist whose background and present standing must have served as inspiration to learn of was Cape Flats-raised composer-educator-activist Chantal Willie-Petersen, who didn’t allow the tragedy of losing her mother to crime while a teenager deter her outlook on life – which would later have her collaborating with Stevie Wonder.
“Celebrate the doors that others walk through – because one day it’s gonna be your door,” she exhorted the attendees who were hanging onto every utterance while scribbling notes.
The workshop’s last panel – which discussed the topic, Purpose Value vs Industry Value – comprised of arguably part of a cohort which represents the country’s en vogue young black recording artists and performers, viz., Mogorosi, Athi and Manana, a trio set to perform at the SBJOJ in Sandton this weekend.
For some reason probably owing to the trio’s visible public profile, both the facilitator and some of the attendees, put across probing enquiries to them around the topic on hand. To a plethora of questions posed to each, Athi responded that “the most important value is to be honest with yourself”, while Manana ventured that “an artist’s work in the industry cannot be 100% honest – in case it’s deemed boring.”
Asked what artists navigated to stay relevant: Mogorosi mentioned factors such as improvisation and figuring out how to incorporate enabling factors; Athi mentioned sustainability and finding out about aspects such as content creation; while Manana mentioned the creation of revenue streams over a lengthy journey, uttering that, “an artist’s value will be measured against their music’s impact.”
Shortly before she was invited onto David Mashabela’s The Royal Playground show on Radio 2000 (which had an outside broadcast studio in the theatre’s foyer) for an interview, one of the attendees, Sechele – a singer/songwriter – responded that the workshop was “insightful and informative.”
Hosted ahead of the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, the workshop was aimed at unlocking the future of South Africa’s creative and music landscape. Notes gleaned from an accompanying booklet suggested that the masterclass was geared towards equipping practitioners with pathways and know-hows on how to build business around their gift.
Image Jacob MAWELA (Musicians, Tumi Mogorosi, Internet Athi and Manana limned during a Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Music Workshop panel discussion at the Joburg Theatre in Braamfontein.)
