New partnership for BAT Centre

THE BAT Centre erupted with shouts of joy when Casio Company, trading as James Ralph (Pty) Ltd, recently delivered pianos and keyboards they had sponsored to the Art Centre.

Director of the BAT Centre, Nise Malange, said theCentre, which is one of the very few art centres in South Africa committed to art education, was blessed to receive the musical instruments from James Izaaks, KZN sales representative for Casio.

This sponsorship comes after the head of sponsorships at Casio South Africa, Junaid Patel, recognised the BAT Centre as a music school they wanted to invest in, because of the impact they continue to have on the art industry in Durban.

“The BAT Centre opened its doors around 20 years ago to musicians who want to learn more about music technically, performance-wise as well as the area of music business. It has done this without fail even when there were insufficient funds to see the programme through. The centre attracts young musicians from mostly from previously disadvantaged communities in Durban and surrounding areas,” said Nise.

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Nise said the donation by Casio, would assist students towards realising their dreams of playing piano and understanding music better.

“This will surely make things easier for the facilitators because most students don’t own keyboards or pianos of their own which hampers them,” said Nise.

The music facilitators at the BAT Centre are experienced Durban-based musicians, including Philani Ngidi (bass), Xolisa Dlamini (voice), Obakeng Thamage (piano and keyboard tech) and Sibusiso Zondi (drum).

Sifiso Cele, music coordinator at the BAT Centre, said they were beyond happy with this sponsorship especially now that the students were about to start with their Friday Lunch Hour concerts.

“This will smooth things out during preparations for the concerts. We are very grateful,” he said.

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