It’s been a rare thing for Makhanda to hear a live orchestra outside of the National Arts Festival and last weekend the Makana Community Orchestra performed for the home crowd in their fourth performance of the year: Symphony Spectacular at the Monument on Saturday October 14.
They played to a packed Guy Butler auditorium where a lively and enthusiastic audience were generous in their appreciation. Many were families and friends of the performers, a reminder of why it’s called a community orchestra.
Young and old, scholars, students and professionals play alongside each other in what Rhodes University music department head and co-founder Dr Boudina McConnachie has described as “music for and by the town’s citizens”. It’s open to anyone who plays an instrument at Grade 5 level or above.
Just 11 months after their inaugural performance in the Cathedral of St Michael and St George in Makhanda, they were part of an evening of quality orchestral music in the Guy Butler auditorium.
That alone was a great achievement and Talk of the Town asked McConnachie about the process over the past year. The biggest key to their achievement, she emphasises, has been joint effort by the town’s music teachers and lecturers, and consistency.
Rehearsals have been held at Kingswood College; transport, supported by St Andrews College, has picked up young musicians from other schools along the way. “We’ve got a really nice cohort of scholars and a lot more Rhodes students are involved,” McConnachie said. “It’s compulsory for the instrumentalists to be part of the community orchestra.”
“We rehearse on Friday nights and the composition varies but I reckon we’re about 40-strong – and we’re holding that which I think is really amazing.”
The orchestra performed several time this year, including at the National Arts Festival and with Graeme College at Grease.
“The main orchestra is 40-strong. We play pieces that are very accessible to people who are about Grade 5, 6 level. Every young player sits next to somebody who is a mentor.”
The first half of last Saturday night’s concert was the full community orchestra. The second half, with more challenging pieces, was the concert orchestra, comprising professionals or players who have Grade 8, playing more challenging pieces. They were combined with the Nelson Mandela University Orchestra.
In the second half, they played a work by a composer so little known that the music had to be transcribed from the handwritten score. PhD student Gareth Robertson, the soloist in Emil Hartmann’s Piano Concerto, loves finding and performing unknown works, McConnachie said.
The last piece, Woloya Nomoni by US composer Christopher Tin featured soloists Tshegofatso Makube and Sibu Mkhize – PhD student and head of Music at Victoria Girls’ High School respectively.
“It’s serious music and quite challenging to play, but it’s got a movie-like character so it’ really accessible for people to listen to,” McConnachie said ahead of the concert. “What we particularly like about this piece of music was that it’s based on African concepts. It’s about the rain and it’s in a Ugandan language and it’s mass choir.”
SIbusiso Mjeza, a composer and who was conductor of the University of the Western Cape Choir for many years coordinated the choirs that include Makhanda Kwantu Choir, conducted by Kutlwano Kepadisa, the Rhodes University Chamber Choir, and the Rhodes University African Chorus.
The orchestra’s founding conductor, Johan Pretorius, who now teaches at Graeme College, is still holding the baton.
“He has been unbelievably passionate about the orchestra – choosing the right pieces, keeping it going, just being consistent and I think that’s what’s proved to be the winning formula here,” McConnachie said.
“We practise every Friday and if some people can’t make it because they’re going away for the weekend, that’s fine. It does change a lot, but I think the most important thing is that the orchestra is for people to play music and have fun. It’s not about taking ourselves unbelievably seriously.
”Obviously it’s wonderful to reach for the stars and play world-class music standards; but it’s really not about that. The goal is giving people the opportunity to perform, showing young musicians what an orchestra can do, what an orchestra feels like. That’s how you catch people – because the feeling of playing in an orchestra is so absolutely amazing.”
“They say it takes a village to raise a child: well, it takes a community to run an orchestra,” she said.
The Symphony Spectacular concert on Saturday October 14 was presented by the Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology, joined by the Makana Community Orchestra and the Mandela University Orchestra. It featured the Rhodes University Concert Choir and soloists including Garreth Robertson playing Emil Hartmann’s Piano Concerto, Christopher Tin’s Waloyo Yamoni featuring Tshegofatso Makube and Sibu Mkhize as soloists, as well as light orchestral music presented by the Makana Community Orchestra.
This was a concert that was engaging, easy to listen to, that allowed individual and ensemble excellence to shine. The Makana Community Orchestra project is an inspiring lesson in can-do and a wonderful training ground for local young musicians. They are well worth supporting.
- This article first appeared in TALK OF THE TOWN – the community newspaper for Ndlambe and Makhanda, in supermarkets and other outlets every Thursday.
