Masakhe

Masakhe offers music performances and workshops for children in the age group between 4 and 12 years old. The project aims to use music to stimulate the child’s imagination and puts smiles on little faces.

Masakhe emphasises the importance music and dance in the development of every child. Secondly they want to use music as a tool in awareness campaigns around saving water, bullying and other social issues.

“Using music has so many benefits! Not only does music have a positive effect on a child’s mood, creativity and imagination, but it teaches children so many skills, such as patience, collaborating and abstract thinking” says project manager Marlyn Ntsele.

“Additionally, with iSupport being company that supports the live music industry, we want to introduce kids to live music and its possibilities to grow our future audience and create more jobs for the people that work in it, such as musicians and sound engineers.” Says Ntsele.

The first performance that Masakhe has developed as part of this new journey is titled “Bongani and the Animal Singdom”. A musical performance about a talented saxophone player – Bongani the Elephant – who has a dream of starting a band with other jungle animals. His challenge is that there is a draught in the jungle, because it has not rained a lot and the humans are using up all the water. Bongani takes the children on a journey of starting his first band, from finding his band members to composing the first songs.

Masakhe has already done successful try-out performances in Groutville in collaboration with the Luthuli Museum, at Sansikani Primary School in Cato Ridge and at Wiggins Primary School in Durban. Later this year Masakhe will start a series of performances in public spaces. Masakhe’s establishment was supported by the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) in association with the Nedbank Arts Affinity. The above-mentioned performances were supported by Concerts SA. For more information about Masakhe: www.masakheonline.com

Note for the editor

The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) is South Africa’s premier independent arts funding and development agency. For more information visit www.act.org.za.

The Nedbank Arts Affinity is a proud supporter of the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT). Since the inception of ACT in 1994, Nedbank has raised and distributed more than R16 million through its Arts Affinity Programme, in support of more than 800 South African arts, culture and heritage development projects, at no cost to its clients. To open a Nedbank Arts Affinity account please visit any Nedbank branch or call 0860 555 111, or visit nedbankarts.co.za for more information.

Concerts SA is a joint South African/Norwegian live music development project housed within the SAMRO Foundation. Concerts SA receives financial, administrative and technical support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SAMRO, the SAMRO Foundation and Concerts Norway. Working with musicians, promoters, venue owners and audiences, and providing support to the sector through research and skills development for music professionals, the project aims to build a vibrant and viable live music circuit in southern Africa. It also aims to develop an interest in and appreciation of live music by showcasing music performances and conducting workshops at schools.

Workshops and Services

“There may be no more powerful method of learning than through music, and no more important lessons for children than those that focus on character and social and emotional skills,” according to clinical psychologist and author Don MacMannis, Ph.D.

Performances

Bongani and the Animal Singdom 4+

Themes: introduction to music and musicians & water preservation.

Talented saxophone player Bongani the Elephant has a dream of starting a band with other jungle animals. His challenge is that there is a draught in the jungle, because it has not rained a lot and the humans are using up all the water. Making music makes you very thirsty! Bongani takes you on a journey of starting his first band, from finding his band members to composing the first songs.

Attend a real jazz concert – any age group

Themes: introduction to music and musicians

You hear music everywhere around you: on radio, on the streets, in church, but do you know how music is made? Have you ever attended a real concert? With this project, we bring jazz music to schools. Children experience South African jazz during a real concert. They get to meet and greet the musicians and their instruments. There is also room for any questions you always wanted to ask. This concert is not only great fun for children, but also for their teachers and parents. So let’s all swing to South African jazz classics and the latest songs.

Optionally the children can be prepared for this experience by a music introduction class by one of our music teachers.

Tailor-made performances

We can remember song lyrics for our whole life, but we tend to forget the notes we made during class within an hour. This is why we believe that using music as a methodology for education can be a great way to teach content – and once the songs are presented to the learners it does not have to be difficult and expensive to assist the educators in keeping the content alive throughout the school year. We can tailormake songs for any educational- or social challenges in your school. You can think of digital safety and social media, road safety, bullying, hiv/aids and other themes. Feel free to give us a call and we are happy to brainstorm with you.

Workshops

Music Day at School

Professional and enthusiastic artists facilitate workshops in all classes and will after come together for a mutual presentation. We will develop a program that is adjusted according to your needs and wishes, the number of children and your budget. Examples of workshops that the children can do on this day are: percussion workshop, make your own instrument, singing and dance workshop.

Practice and Perform: Activate Understanding

Music can

♪ Enhance this learning experience

♪ Provide a memory tool through rhythm and rhyme

♪ Stimulate imagination and creativity

♪ Make practicing fun

Music is therefore an amazing tool for teaching and creating awareness, especially to children. Our compositions in combination with our lesson briefs will remain with a learner long after our visit to your school. Aside from that, music is highly pleasurable and sustains the learner’s attention. The more relaxed the learner feels, the more receptive they will be to learning.

” We as Sansikane primary school really had a good time when you visited us I would like to take this opportunity to thank you guys, for the great entertainment you gave us . It was a true enjoyment of music and our kids really enjoyed themselves. Again thank you looking forward to seeing you in future . The reading part of the performance was so impressive learners really enjoyed it. The dance choreographers was beautiful. “Sansikane Primary School

” The costumes were one of the things that children noticed because , of their love of animal stories . To have you I Support Music really motivated us as teachers that we can also include dance and music to promote reading to our learners as most of the learners nowadays cannot read fluently hope we will learn more from you. ” Wiggins Primay School