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Thursday, December 3, 2015

MPHO MOLIKENG OF BOWS AND PEOPLE TOUR



(Mpho Molikeng)

In association with Concerts SA, Mpho Molikeng presents Of Bows & People Tour, a musical journey through the indigenous music of Southern Africa. It covers the experience of a man who has spent a number of years finding and playing Southern African indigenous musical instruments (flutes, whistles, horns, bows, drums, shakers, hand-clappers, ankle-rattles, wind-stringed, mbiras and marimbas) and discovered that the future of African music lies in its indigenous music as a whole.

Lesotho-born multi-facet artist (musician, actor, curator, poet, painter, storyteller and cultural activist/entrepreneur) Molikeng trained with Bloemfontein College (Fine Art, 1995) and Soyikwa Theatre Institute (Drama, 1998). He has dedicated the past 12 years to learning, then playing and teaching, indigenous musical instruments of Southern Africa and sharing them with Africa and Europe in the age of technology.

For this tour Molikeng is putting the microscope on one family of these amazing musical instruments to explore their play nuances, ethnicity and their harmonious distinction in a collaborative set-up. He will be exploring a family of bow instruments, both mouth resonated and tin/gourd resonated. Some instruments that will form part of the collaborations are Umakhoyane / Umakhweyane, Uhadi / Thomo / Dende / Ughubhu, Umrhubhe / Mokhope /Utiyane, Umqangala / Lekope/ Lugube, and the Mamokhorong / Tsijolo / Sikhelekhehle.

His tour will touch on seven different cities, collaborating with individuals or groups who are masters of their instruments for many years: In Durban, he will be working with Gog’ Bavikile Ngema.

 “Indigenous music should be made relevant to today, in the ever-changing world full of zillion sampled and computed genres of music, in so doing younger generations would start picking up indigenous instruments,” says Molikeng. “Second, it should be given the same platform afforded to international and pop stars in our own backyard before selling them international. Lastly, collaborations across different cultures and gender should be promoted, to do away with tribalism and/or one-wo/man instruments, but still keep their identity.”

Mpho Molikeng can be seen on December 5 at Cool Runnings, 49 Milne Street, Durban. Bookings on 031 368 5604

Of Bows & People Tour is supported by Toms, the Alliance Française of Southern Africa and the Music Mobility Fund, a funding mechanism administered by Concerts SA which offers opportunities for South African musicians to undertake live music tours.