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ENSEMBLE INFO

Ensemble Contact:

Email:

ensemblehesperi@gmail.com

2018

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Our proposed project is a series of two collaborative concerts with the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble. Buskaid is a SA-registered charity founded in 1997 by UK Baroque viola player Rosemary Nalden, and its flagship ensemble has an international reputation for high quality, historically informed performances. Hesperi founders Mary-Jannet Leith and Thomas Allery have been involved with Buskaid for over a decade, and have visited the Buskaid music school in the Diepkloof area of the Soweto township. This August, 7 of the ensemble’s young musicians (3 violinists, 1 violist, 2 cellists and a double bassist) will be visiting the UK for the ESTA Summer School in Wiltshire to present a series of workshops showcasing Buskaid’s highly successfully string teaching approach.

This collaborative project makes the most of the Buskaid ensemble’s presence in the UK this summer, and has grown from the shared passion of both ensembles for high-quality historically informed performance. The project is designed as an educational opportunity for both ensembles. For the Buskaid musicians, this collaboration would offer a chance to rehearse and perform side-by-side with a professional Early Music ensemble in the UK. For Hesperi, this project would represent a unique opportunity to learn from the energy and lived experience of Buskaid’s musicians. It would also advance our core charitable purpose - promoting Baroque music to the benefit of the wider public - while also furthering the education of young musicians in historically informed performance and repertoire.

We are currently planning two concerts performing the same programme: the first will take place at Wiltshire Music Centre (18 August) and the second at St Giles Cripplegate, Barbican (20 August). The repertoire is not yet finalised, but will balance favourites by Bach, Purcell, Rameau and Telemann (including excerpts from his Suite in A minor for recorder and strings) with music by diverse 18th-century composers, including a Symphonie by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, as well as a recent composition by Julian Grant, Sancho’s Dance Mix, inspired by Ignatius Sancho’s collections of Country Dances. Each programme will also feature Kwela music, an improvised genre of street music with roots in traditional African township music and anti-apartheid protest songs, arranged and performed (with dance moves!) by the ensemble in all Buskaid’s concerts.

Most importantly, this project will enable us to enthuse new demographics beyond traditional classical audiences. We hope that the compelling story of Buskaid and its young musicians may appeal particularly to a younger, diverse demographic, who may have never encountered Early Music before. We have also chosen the Wiltshire Music Centre, ‘a home for the musically curious’, for its reputation for community-focused artistic excellence. We plan to film the London concert for release on the YouTube channels of both ensembles, expanding our audience worldwide.

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