Buskaid: a concert of Majors and Minors

“We are the new generation,” says 22-year-old violinist Tshidiso Boikanyo, reflecting on the kind of music he loves most. A member of the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, he has grown to adulthood under Buskaid’s music tuition. He joined as a wide-eyed six-year-old in 2009; he’s recently taken up the reins of ensemble leader.

You will get to experience his expertise as performer, collaborator and leader in Buskaid’s upcoming public concert, in the Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein on Saturday August 17 at 3pm. Buskaid concerts have become rare events on the cultural calendar of late; this is one you cannot afford to miss.

Featuring music from Baroque to amapiano, the concert is in celebration of Buskaid’s founder and leader, Rosemary Nalden, who turned 80 in February.

Nalden, a graduate of London’s Royal College of Music and the University of New Zealand, enjoys a passion for early instruments. She recorded as a violist with conductors of the ilk of Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Simon Rattle, in the 1980s. In 1997, she repurposed her career trajectory when she founded Buskaid, an organisation based on a British model, and tweaked it to fit the unique circumstances of Soweto youth.

Over the past 27 years, Nalden, who has earned many local and international laureates for her work with Buskaid, has probably learnt more about raising indigent but talented teens than she may have wished to, but she has given legs to arguably one of South Africa’s most important music incubators, based as it is, in a yellow brick-faced complex in Mphatlalatsane Street, Diepkloof. This is where it all happens.

Says Boikanyo: “It is difficult to think of Rosemary as an elderly woman. She is strict, but has an incredibly open mind, musically. As my current teacher, she helps me with the fundamentals of getting my bowing tight and my intonation in tune; but she also guides me to develop mentally and in my approach to my work.”

Of course, in musical performance, practise is everything. As is hearing. Boikanyo almost dismissively mentions he was born deaf in one ear; he goes on to explain this disability as an advantage. “Because of it, I know the resonance of how the music hits the walls and comes back. I feel the vibrations through my body.”

It was only in 2008 that Boikanyo as a small child first realised what a violin could really do. Boikanyo’s grandmother woke him up to watch his uncle, former Buskaid virtuoso, Simiso Radebe performing live on TV. It blew his mind.

“Fourteen, 15 years later, I’m the leader of the whole ensemble of 17 professional players. Doing music has really become a part of me.”

The concert’s programme is structured in true Buskaid tradition, with classical, light and township music. “When we put together concert programmes, everyone gets a hand in. Rosemary suggests the old music; we suggest what we know from the internet or what we have played before. Rosemary is versatile. That’s what I respect most about her. She’s tough, but good. 

“Music,” he adds, “keeps me sane. It puts my mind out of discomfort, especially when I find the notes intact, and I play in tune and understand the breathing and motion of how to play the instrument and I feel the music.”

Armed with a Grade 8 in violin through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Boikanyo acknowledges his future as glowing and growing, particularly with the prospect of the spotlight being on him, unequivocally in a fortnight. Next in his sights is the performers’ diploma.

“Right now, I feel responsible in making sure that everything is intact,” he says reflecting on his rather unexpected appointment as ensemble leader. “And making sure that all the violinists have the notes in sync; I lead them into what happens next. My job, is basically to help everyone breathe together.” The challenge of leadership doesn’t feel insurmountable. “Everything comes at the right time.”

Stage fright is a constant for Boikanyo, as it must be for any performer: “There are times when my mind wanders off and I think about how people perceive me or if someone sneezes, it can interrupt my thinking, but when I really feel the music, I don’t care any more about anything else. I put myself in a realm of sound and music.”

Having said that, he feels “pretty confident about the current concert. We have put a lot of work into it. I’m a soloist for the Ernest Bloch Nigun, as well as other pieces on the programme; I love how the team keeps on accompanying me and giving me inspiration. This role has made me realise I’m not alone. I still have my people with me.” 

For this concert, Buskaid’s ensemble is accompanied by South African pianist Eugene Joubert, and includes work by Baroque composers Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Franz Biber and 20th century favourites such as George Gershwin’s Lullaby, Béla Bartók’s Romanian folk dances and the work of African American composer Florence Price.

Tickets are available for R300 at Buskaid celebrates Rosemary Nalden’s 80th! on Quicket