Johannesburg Philharmonic Presents A New Tune

It's really good news that the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra has achieved some form of financial stability with a powerful patron, business mogul Cyril Ramaphosa, willing to push the classical music agenda. A full-time orchestra for the city of Johannesburg, and a cadet scheme to mentor 30 young musicians annually, should greatly improve the quality of life of the artists and their music, as well as foster a culture of professionalism.

Instead of running themselves ragged between the province's various ad hoc orchestras and corporate gigs, as from April 1 the 40 JPO players can get serious about their chosen art form. The drastic cuts in state funding for orchestras over the past seven years were in many ways disastrous nationwide, but there was a positive aspect.

The political debates in the 1990s about the place and value of "Eurocentric" cultural forms in a newly democratic African country not only stirred talk, but highlighted, or even triggered, developmental action. This crisis also revealed how deep-seated European classical music is in South African life thanks to the black choral tradition.

Training programmes produced a new generation of orchestral musicians, who previously were denied access to orchestras. But without the prospect of permanent employment all these endeavors amount to nothing. -- www.jpo.co.za