by Erik Albertyn, IHS Area Representative for South Africa and Professor of Horn at Nelson Mandela University

INTRODUCTION

The existence of symphony orchestras is under increasing threat world-wide. This is largely due to the challenging cost model of keeping seventy highly skilled professional musicians in permanent employ but also due to a variety of cultural and societal factors. This is also particularly relevant to the wider South African society with its renewed scrutiny of colonialism in education and society. Against all odds symphonic music has endured and even thrived in areas such as the motion picture industry and particularly in Asian societies.

As a professional orchestral musician, educator and artistic director of an orchestra I am well versed in the challenges that exist in the South African music environment. We often look to Europe as our role model, but the rest of Africa is largely ignored. My motivation for this survey was to find out what could be found in Africa, where to find it and the rationale for the existence of orchestral activities in this vast continent. The results below are largely the result of an internet search as physical publications are extremely rare.

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Perhaps the greatest challenge a teacher faces is finding a way to motivate their students. Sometimes even the most talented young players are not able to find a way to develop their talent to the level of mastering our wonderful instrument, while a student with average talent does.

The flame of motivation that students may have during a lesson when they strive to play their very best for their teacher, or during a concert while under the spell of an audience, may fizzle out during the long hours of practice time that are necessary to first develop their talent and then maintain the performance edge during a lifetime of happy horn playing.

I have always used mental images to motivate me. I was very fortunate to have access to an extensive collection of recordings of symphonic music when I was a child. The heroic sound of Roland Berger soaring above the Vienna Philharmonic in a Strauss tone poem became a part of my horn concept as well as the noble phrasing and velvet sound of Philip Farkas playing the first phrase of the the Brahms second piano concerto. Indeed when I was sixteen I would listen to a phrase and then run down to the basement and attempt to duplicate it.

To this day I never play a single note without filling my mind and soul with the sound of the note vibrating in the acoustic of one of my favorite halls. Before I was fortunate enough to play in these halls, I thrilled myself by imagining that I was. The mental images help me to focus my mind, eliminate distractions and keep me in the flow of the moment.

by Sandra Daniel

The Nairobi Symphony horns performing Gustav Holst’s “The Planets”

When you think of a place exploding with classical musicians, I highly doubt Nairobi, Kenya would be at the top of your list. That was the mindset I had five years ago during my first trip to Kenya in 2014. I traveled to visit a friend teaching string instruments at a private high school with no clue as to the development of a music conservatoire, several youth orchestras, and even an adult community orchestra to accommodate all of the blossoming musicians in Nairobi. I was shocked to find enough people learning and performing instruments to form more than one orchestra when where I come from in “the developed world” I had to drive an hour in any direction to participate in simple community bands. It was both thrilling and confusing at the same time. 

One of the things that drew me back to Nairobi to live was finding that among this growing world of musicians, my own beloved instrument, the horn, was almost non-existent. The instruments were not really available in the country. The rare horn players that were around were not taking students. All of the orchestras were using saxophones to fill in the horn gaps. The horn was like Bigfoot or a unicorn in Kenya. My thought was that while I do not consider myself to be an amazing horn player or teacher, at least I can do something to help fill in this obviously needed role.

By Amy Sanchez, UCLA Lecturer- Horn

As I often tell my horn students, you never know where one gig will lead. This one started with jazz in Africa, so you can trust that it’s not a common tale… 

In March of 2018, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to South Africa to perform at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival with Miguel Atwood Ferguson’s Suite for Ma Dukes (the music of legendary hip-hop producer J Dilla). I had always wanted to go on a safari “someday”, so being an opportunist in travel, my jazz gig suddenly landed me at a beautiful yet rustic safari lodge in the Greater Kruger National Park area of South Africa. I booked myself on a 3-night safari, not knowing what I was getting myself into. My guide for the safari, Willem Pietersen, was curious about my varied career in music, but was himself a wealth of knowledge about every plant, tree, insect, bird, and animal we encountered. He was so invested, I would’ve assumed guiding was his main career goal, but we discussed the necessity of diversification in building a life around your passion. In music, this often means gigging, teaching, and auditioning while working other jobs as well. For Willem, constructing a career in conservation meant juggling several other major projects while working as a full-time guide. Willem and his brother, Joe Pietersen, had a few other irons in the fire - namely, they owned Nkombe Rhino, a non-profit protecting rhinos from poaching. They were also producing and hosting a 13-episode television documentary about conservation efforts throughout the country. The series, released this past spring, is called Veldhelde  (“Field Heroes” in Afrikaans). Not your average side-jobs! Needless to say, after having an incredible time on safari and making such interesting new connections in Africa, I stayed in touch after returning home and had no idea where that first “gig” would lead.