Durban Music School - making a difference through music. (Classical
Notes by William Charlton-Perkins published courtesy of The Mercury)
Ten years ago, while reading about the meteoric rise to fame
of the young Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, I chanced upon reference to
the internationally renowned music education programme known as El Sistema,
through which the young maestro had been nurtured.
I carried a report in this column about this astonishingly
successful endeavour which had produced multiple youth orchestras in Venezuela,
and more than 90 symphony orchestras, through giving a sense of self-worth and
purpose to thousands of impoverished inner-city street children who had found
their identity by being taught to read and play music together.
A current website introduces El Sistema as “a tested model
of how a music program can both create great musicians and dramatically change
the life trajectory of hundreds of thousands of a nation’s neediest kids”.
Readers can learn just how incredibly far-reaching and effective the programme
is by visiting https://elsistemausa.org/el-sistema-in-venezuela.htm
Since my story appeared, this miraculous model, which also
carries immensely powerful audience development side-effects for the arts, has
been adopted by many countries around the globe. But, sadly, this has not yet
happened in any significant way here - despite attempts to persuade
decision-makers in our local music sector to pull together and exhort
government to back the system.
Our own socially-driven music education initiatives continue
to be run as isolated projects, however big or small each may be. In this
region, the leader in the field remains our valiant Durban Music School (DMS).
Housed in a heritage building dating from back to the 1860s,
it is situated at 21 Diakonia Avenue. Along with the Diakonia Centre and the
Refugee Information Centre across the street, DMS stands as an oasis of
sanctity in Durban’s notoriously poverty-stricken, crime-riddled, inner-city
zone known as Albert Park.
For the past two years, DMS has benefited from the tireless
leadership of eThekwini Living Legend, Kim Matthews, who has been its chief
executive officer since the death of its founder, Werner Dannewitz. With 36
part-time paid music teachers on board, the school offers music tuition to
learners ranging from three-year-olds to senior citizens. The school’s
curriculum offers weekly lessons in piano, keyboard, guitar, and all orchestral
instruments except the harp. There are approximately 500 learners of which 420
are on full music bursary. Learners are required to take accredited music exams
each year, either through Royal Schools or Trinity College.
DMS’s main mission is to equip its pupils with the skills to
sing or to play an instrument with professional proficiency (past members
include the noted South African trumpeter Michael Magner, now a member of the
Johannesburg Philharmonic, Maxine Matthews, one of South Africa’s top
saxophonists and trombonist Ross Butcher, a respected orchestral musician in
Switzerland).
Structured as a Section 21 Company, DMS benefits from the
guidance of a seven-member Board, with KZN Philharmonic’s Bongani Tembe serving
as its chairman. The school has 22 studios which are available for practice
purposes, as well as a recently-built R13 million performance venue, funded by
the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and designed by architect, Paul
Mikula.
Famed musical entities affiliated with DMS include the KZN
Youth Orchestra and the KZN Youth Wind Band, which accredited itself with
honour in China last year, and is set to perform at an international music
festival in Vienna in July.
DMS also runs several community outreach programmes. Its
teachers work at the Open Air School in Glenwood four days a week, including
its junior school, embracing some 100 children individually and as members of
ensembles and choirs.
A further DMS development programme happens in Umlazi where
five teachers work with some 50 children. This project, run in partnership with
the Durban-based charity, Little Wings Foundation, sees the training of a
10-member band of 8 to 12-year old children. These children have been invited
to perform at the prestigious Festival of Life in Las Vegas in October this
year - alongside luminaries such as Kanye West and Lionel Ritchie. A
fund-raising drive is underway in support of this ground-breaking venture.
Another development initiative run by Matthews under the
aegis DMS is conducted in partnership with the Paw Paw Foundation, of which she
is also CEO. This includes hosting 15 rural learners from Inchanga for weekly
lessons at the school. Each child is given a hot meal before returning home.
Yet another out-of-town programme takes place at Ntuzuma
where learners from the Bonisinani Primary School, aged between six and 12
years, are making significant headway with their Royal Schools music exams.
And back on home turf, a programme close to Kim Matthews’
heart sees her opening DMS up to some 40 little children from the immediate
neighbourhood to receive hip hop lessons, as a safe-haven project run in
partnership with the nearby YMCA. - William Charlton-Perkins
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