You don’t want to miss hours of spiritual and relaxing Easter music
Holly Cross Anglican Church to perform Manger to Cross Musical Extravaganza.
Easter Sunday is festival and holiday commemorating Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, as written in the Christian bible. Manger to Cross is a religious musical version of John Witty whose scores edition was published between 1908 and 1922.
In celebration of Easter, Thuthukani Music Conservatoire Orchestra in collaboration with Holly Cross Anglican Church will be performing Manger to Cross Musical Extravaganza and an event to be held at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Orlando (just behind Hector Pieterson Memorial Site) on Sunday, March 25. Entrance Fee is R100 and tickets will be available at the door.
This Religious Musical tells the life of Jesus through music, depicting the various stages of His life from the Prophesy of Christ’s Coming, His Birth, Ministry and His Death.
Popular and relevant religious songs that are sung during Easter Weekend will be performed by Angelic voices and sweet melodies of the choirs accompanied by thunderous but harmonious 20 piece Orchestra.
Thuthukani Music Conservatoire has been involved in teaching musical instruments in the township for over 30 years and has produced some of the great musicians including some highly qualified musicians who are now employed in the Country’s Military Band, SA Navy and other renowned Jazz Bands.
The orchestra has successfully showcased their work and talent in many communities locally and beyond and has supported many community music groups, such as church choirs and school choirs by providing orchestral accompaniment to enhance their performances and to raise funds by staging concerts.
Seasoned Concerts were highly supported in Soweto before 1976 but after the June 16 uprising, concerts attendance died. Thuthukani successfully revived concert attendance from 2012 by presenting events like Christmas Carols concerts during the festive season which are now established as annual events.
They are based at the Mofolo Bowl in Soweto and consists of 15 educators who specialize in different musical instruments and are also part of the Orchestra.
“We have three sections of teaching and they are; Music Classes for young students between the ages of 6 to 18 years, in which we teach Theory of Music from Grade 1 to 8. Advanced students are entered into Music Exams with the London Royal School of Music and Unisa.
“We also conduct our own internal assessment. We currently teach the following instruments: Violins, Viola: Cello, Bass, Flute, Clarinets, Trombone, Trumpets, and Saxophone,” explained Lindy Makubalo, one of the founder members and teacher at Thuthukani.
“We then have Small Ensembles, these are groups that have already mastered their instruments and now form Quintets; Quartets; Duets and Solo’s. They meet on Thursdays and are ready for performances whenever the need arises,” she further explained.
“We then have the Orchestra which comprises of about 20 permanent musicians, we all meet on Sundays for a full rehearsal and prepare for upcoming concerts. So far, the Orchestra has 4 major concerts per year – the Easter Concert mainly doing J.S.
“Witty’s Manger to Cross, June Celebrations with youth Choirs, Heritage Concert mostly showcasing our young emerging talent and the Christmas Carols which are performed on the first Sunday of December every year usually at Mofolo Park or Mofolo Art Centre Hall, Soweto depending on the weather,” she concluded.
Instruments such as violins and saxophones are very expensive and most parents cannot afford to buy them or even afford to pay tuition fees tuition, thus, Thuthukani provides students with these instruments from the monies they raise through concerts.
Thuthukani has been receiving funding of R35 000 annually from Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) and they said that the funding is not enough to meet the number of students that enroll every year.
Their challenge has always been the need to repair the existing musical instruments and to buy more to cover the number of students that they have.
Luckily, this year, Thuthukani Conservatoire was blessed to receive funding from National Lotteries Commission (NLC) which is also the official sponsor of Manger to Cross.
