(Nonhlanhla
Wanda & Sharon Katz)
Join Sharon Katz & Nonhlanhla Wanda’s 25th Anniversary Creating Music Together
when they visit Durban on February 16, 2019.
Musician/humanitarian Sharon Katz
(originally from Port Elizabeth) and singer/teacher, Nonhlanhla Wanda (from
Durban) celebrate 25 years of worldwide touring and musical collaboration. Some
of the celebration includes duo shows in South Africa with performances in
Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
The tour begins with a concert with the
legendary diva Abigail Kubeka at Sophiatown TheMix on February 9 and will be
followed by concerts in Durban and Cape Town.
This tour revisits cities that Sharon,
Nonhlanhla, & the Peace Train visited just over 25 years ago, December
1993, in South Africa. Katz remembers that as a bonding time with everyone
living together on the Peace Train, “as an experiment that for the first time
in our history we could live and travel together as a multiracial group across
the country. Nonhlanhla and I, from opposite sides of the race divide, were
able to achieve that as musicians and activists. We had 100 singers and a
12-piece band plus crew and parents as chaperones, a TV crew and invited
Ladysmith Black Mambazo to join us.”
The international performers recorded their
current album Side-By-Side with
producer Malcolm Nhleko of Maltre Studios. The Afro-Jazz-Contemporary fusion
album features all original compositions by Wanda and Katz and showcases their
distinctive voices and gorgeous harmonies complemented by the instrumental
virtuosity of Sharon on guitar; Qhubekani Mthethwa on bass; Charles Boykie
Mnomiya on drums; and Sanele Phakathi on piano and synthesizer.
Katz and Wanda are also the subjects of the
multiple-award winning film, When Voices
Meet” It documents the role of The Peace Train in creating South Africa’s
first, 500-voice multiracial youth choir in KwaZulu-Natal in 1993; its
groundbreaking concert tour across the country in support of the first
democratic elections; The Peace Train’s first tour of America after President
Mandela was elected; and the long-term impact of the project as told by the
participants 20 years later. The film, which premiered at the Durban
International Film Festival, has won awards at over 30 film festivals around
the world and been broadcast in over 50 countries. John Kani and Abigail Kubeka
are also featured in the film.
In 2018 The Peace Train initiated a
multi-national project called Transcending Barriers which is designed to foster
peaceful relationships between the countries of Mexico, Cuba, South Africa and
the USA. In June 2019, Katz will perform with 2,000 children in Tijuana Mexico,
and in November she will present a full production featuring Cuban, South
African, American and Mexican children at the 33rd International Choir Festival
in Santiago de Cuba.
The duo contributes proceeds from their
concerts and CD sales toward social development projects in South Africa,
including supporting a children’s home, bursaries for orphans, after-school
cultural programmes, and therapeutic music projects across the country. Katz will also join Mlungisi Gegana in
concerts to benefit the Mlungisi Academy in Queenstown.
In addition to their own CDs, the group was
recorded on the Carnival! album with
Sting, Tina Turner, Elton John and Madonna. They have also recorded with Dolly
Rathebe and Abigail Kubeka and featured Ladysmith Black Mambazo on The Peace
Train’s original tour.
Katz and Wanda with full band will perform
in Durban on February 16, 2019, at the Moyo Restaurant at uShaka Marina. Reservations
for dinner: 031 332 0606.
For more information and bookings contact SharonKatz2000@gmail.com
or visit www.SharonKatz.com
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