(Dawn
Thandeka King will host the concert)
A rich sampling of some of South Africa’s
most acclaimed traditional musicians has been confirmed for what is poised to
be an exciting highlight of the 23rd South African Women’s Arts Festival
(SAWAF).
The festival, which runs at Durban’s
Playhouse complex from Wednesday to Saturday, August 7 to 10, 2019, is
presented annually by The Playhouse Company, an agency of the Department of
Arts and Culture, which embraces the principles of social cohesion and
nation-building.
A diverse spectacle of drama, dance,
topical discussions and craft has been assembled for the 2019 event, at which
the showcase music treat will be the Traditional Extravaganza Concert, to be
presented on August 9, in the Playhouse Opera.
Hosting the Traditional Extravaganza
Concert will be Dawn Thandeka King, a motivational speaker, MC, spiritual
healer, indigenous musician and a popular actress noted as a star of TV’s Lockdown and one of the courtyarder
nominees for Best Actress in Uzalo.
Directed by award-winning Durban theatre
personality Clare Mortimer, this concert will highlight such glittering talents
as celebrated singer-actress and musician Tu Nokwe; internationally renowned
and award-winning African “Queen of Ndebele” music, Dr Nothembi Mkhwebane;
popular maskandi groups Vumile Mngoma and Izingane Zoma.
(Left: Tu
Nokwe)
Raised in KwaMashu, Durban, and influenced
in her younger years by acclaimed musician Bheki Mseleku, Tu Nokwe is the
daughter of noted jazz musician Alfred Nokwe and singer-actress Patty Nokwe.
Tu is as much renowned for her music as she
is for acting, her work having included performing in the plays Sheila’s Day and Singing the Times, the latter being the biography of her mother’s
life, which Tu wrote. She is also remembered as Shaka’s wife in Bill Faure’s
globally acclaimed, landmark South African mini-series, Shaka Zulu. An original member of the group Black Angels, Tu Nokwe
formed the Amajika Youth Project, which taught children music, dance and drama.
She studied music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and has a number
of albums to her credit.
Dr Nothembi Mkhwebane, an expert in Ndebele
music and skilled on a number of traditional instruments, started composing in
the late 1970s. In 1980 she formed a group called Nothembi Nezelamani
Zakonomazyana which entertained at cultural gatherings and weddings, and her
musical career flourished from then.
Not a stranger to Playhouse Company stages,
she has performed in America, Austria, Germany, France and India. She has an
honorary doctorate degree in Literature, Philosophy, Musicology and Poetry from
The Good Shepard College in KwaZulu-Natal and also has The Order of Princess
Magogo Award.
The concert’s director, Clare Mortimer, has
starred in and directed a wide variety range of productions, including many
Shakespearean plays aimed at school audiences. As an actress, she has starred
in such diverse productions as A Voice I
Cannot Silence, Wit, Master Class and The
BFG.
The Traditional
Extravaganza Concert will be presented at 19h00 on August 9, in the
Playhouse Opera. Tickets range from R120 to R150 and can be bought at the
Playhouse box-office – phone 031 3699 596/40 – or online and at Pick N Pay
outlets via WebTickets (the customer support line is 086 111 0005).
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