(Jazz
musician Theo Bophela is presented with his award by Sibusiso Sithole, City
Manager at Ethekwini Municipality)
With its prestigious Living Legends Awards,
now in their fifth year, the eThekwini Municipality last month celebrated those
who have made a major contribution to the city in their various fields.
“The fact that what began as an idea in the
unassuming minds of a few people has grown in such leaps and bounds in a space
of five years is an extraordinary stride for our beautiful City,” said Councillor
James Nxumalo, the Mayor of eThekwini. “It is this power of an idea which is so
aptly personified by the people whose works, contributions and sacrifices the
eThekwini Living Legends Awards recognise and celebrate.”
This year’s impressive ceremony saw the
2012 recipients of the Living Legends Awards enter the splendidly-decorated ICC
carrying a lantern on one side and holding the hand of a five-year old child on
the other. The children were chosen specifically for their age to celebrate the
fifth anniversary of the awards.
The procession moved towards the stage and,
once each Living Legend awardee reached the stage, they symbolically handed their
lantern to their accompanying child. In an extremely moving process, the child
then walked up onto the stage, as if carrying forward the awardee’s energies
and skills into the future.
Among the awardees was acclaimed jazz
musician Theo Bophela who was immersed in a wide variety of musical genres from
a very young age. After obtaining his senior certificate, a job at a radio
repair workshop and exposure to jazz legends inspired him to take piano lessons
and he has never looked back.
During his professional career, he worked
with Tom Ndaba’s Swingsters Jazz Band, Chromatic Jazz Band, Keynotes Jazz
Group, Theo Bophela Trios & Quartets Jazz Resurrection Orchestra, among others.
As a band leader, composer, pianist,
arranger, music educator and director, he has performed in Athens, Holland,
Australia and New Zealand and conducted Soweto
Jive workshops in Alkmaar, Holland, with the late Sophie Mgcina and Timothy
Ndaba. He has also written orchestral works for performance by the KZN
Philharmonic Orchestra with the Ngwelo Afrika Jazz Group.
He is an ex-member of Board of Directors
for South African Recording Rights Association Limited (SARAL). When he is not
sharing his wealth of musical knowledge, he is involved in fund-raising efforts
at Masisizane Centre, a communal collective for senior citizens of Inanda.
Today, Bophela continues to inspire young student performers and artists,
passing on his passion for jazz and love of musicianship.
Other 2012 Living Legends in the arts were author
Lauretta Ngcobo, visual artist Paul Sibisi and theatre personality and artSMart
editor Caroline Smart.
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