WATCH: Nights are alive with violin playing, bagpipes in honour of Benoni’s essential services

Music has proven a welcome solace for people in lockdown around the world, with residents of towns all over the globe sharing their talents from rooftops, gardens and balconies. Benonians are also saluting our essential workers with musical interludes.

Marion Joan Smith, an inspiring writer who lives in Farrarmere, brings us the story of two such talented youngsters who are filling the air with soothing tunes each day.

WESTERN EXTENSION: TERTIA-LEE KING (13)

Tevye looked at the fiddler balanced precariously on a rooftop, silhouetted against the setting sun, and remarked: ‘A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck’. The village setting in the famed musical Fiddler on the Roof paints a dismal picture and in our global village, Covid-19 is currently casting an overall feeling of doom.

In Western Extension, though, a 13-year-old violinist, Tertia-Lee Knight (Ters, as she is fondly known by her family), goes to her front gate at 7pm each night and the sound of Elvis Presley’s I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You fills the air.

Tertia-Lee is a gentle soul.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis she wanted to do something to help and at 13 the only thing she can do is use her talent to show her appreciation for our essential workers. She learns a new song every day, some of them from watching YouTube videos, and plays in her front garden every night.

Her songs have become a lifeline for some and something to look forward to every day.

Her neighbours are applauding after every performance and that just spurs her on to keep going.

Neighbour Henry Reynecke expressed it aptly when he said: “We find it extremely entertaining and inspiring. Her playing brings a lovely close to a lockdown day.”

Benoni resident Kerri Hurst said: “I am starting to look forward to 7pm every night when we can follow the sounds of Tertia-Lee King playing her violin for our essential workers. Thanks, Ters.”

Request after request flows in while this slip of a girl simply tucks her blonde hair behind her ear and continues to play songs by Leonard Cohen, Elvis Presley and other popular composers. One of the popular songs Tertia-Lee plays is Into the Unknown from the latest Frozen movie.

Tertia-Lee’s journey with her violin started at the tender age of seven.

She attended St Dominic’s Catholic School for Girls, in Boksburg, where all the students are exposed to and given a term’s violin lessons as part of the school’s music programme. One violin lesson was all it took.

She came home that afternoon and announced that she wanted a violin.

Thinking this was just a passing phase, her mom, Daniela Knight, told her they would think about it.

As the term progressed, Tertia-Lee became more adamant that she wanted a violin.

At term end the class held a little concert to show their parents what they had learnt and after the concert, her mother asked the violin teacher whether he thought Tertia-Lee had the talent to play the violin.

He responded that she was one of few children who picked up the violin and made music, from day one.

Ters’s granny, Tertia Jacobs, offered to pay for a year’s lessons, mom Danielle bought a half-sized violin and the rest is history.

At the age of 10, Tertia joined the East Rand Youth Orchestra and at the beginning of Grade Eight she joined St Dunstan’s College, where she hopes to take music as a matric subject.

In 2019, she played for an ad hoc Ekurhuleni Orchestra in a once-off opera gala evening where she was the only child playing with professional players.

Tertia-Lee takes violin lessons from the famed Pienaar Fourie, conductor of the East Rand Youth Orchestra.

FARRARMERE: SEAN DANIEL FILER (15)

As the last rays of the sun disappear over the rooftops of Benoni, the sound of a bagpipe player’s rendition of our national anthem fills the air, followed by one or two other well-loved songs.

Farrarmere resident Johannes (Johan) Blaauw who listens to this every evening, remarks: “The spirit of Scotland echoes in the streets and hearts through epidemic times.”

Blaauw posted the following on the Benoni Community Group’s Facebook page: “Who is the guy with the bagpipes? Want to give him a proper salute … Think he is a legend.”

This “guy with the bagpipes” who is bringing joy and hope to his community during lockdown and the global pandemic is Sean Daniel Filer, a Grade Nine student at Benoni High School and a member of the school’s prestigious pipe band.

Sean started learning to play the bagpipes in late October 2016.

He had to go through the standard process of learning on the chanter first.

After playing for just over a year, he started competing in several solo competitions under the watchful eye of his devoted tutor, Herbie Campbell.

Sean progressed to his pipes and started playing with the Benoni High School band in 2018, where he competed in gatherings and solo competitions.

This dedicated young teen even practised while in the Sydney Botanical Gardens.

In 2019, Sean won Junior Piper of the Year for Grade Eight and in March, before the announcement of lockdown, competed in the Sandy Mallen competition where he came second overall.

Sean’s sister, Caitlin, was his inspiration to join the pipe band. She became a snare drummer in Grade Eight when she joined Benoni High School in 2015.

Brother and sister have played at numerous gatherings, solos, parades and functions together over the last few years.

The pipe band has been a major part of their lives over the last five years.

Sean, who lives in a complex in Farrarmere with his family, was practising a few weeks ago when a neighbour across the road sent a message to his mom, Penney, asking if he would be willing to play at 7pm for the essential services personnel, which he gladly started doing.

He has played every evening (weather permitting) since then.

He starts with the national anthem (which he has been learning and is still perfecting) and then plays several other tunes.

One of Sean’s favourites is Amazing Grace and he dedicates this hymn to all the those who are suffering the effects of Covid-19.

Several neighbours come out to watch, clap and cheer him on and even shout out requests which he gladly plays.

Benoni Agricultural Holdings resident Marina Kruger regrets not being able to hear Sean play, but watched his performance on Facebook.

In her own words, “It gave me goosebumps.”

Other residents also commented on how much they are enjoying Sean’s music.

The last verse of former slave trader John Newton’s hymn Amazing Grace reads, “Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come: ’tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

May these words from one of Sean’s favourite songs ring true for our community and our beloved land.