What do French baroque and South African Kwela music have in common? The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble offer music lovers a chance to find out, and a chance to experience the magic that happens when cultural traditions meet.

Forget tailcoats, bow ties and the hushed grandeur of the concert hall. These players are more likely to be in T-shirts, accompanied by dancers and African drums and moving spontaneously in mesmerising unison.

A Kiwi behind it all

There is a New Zealander behind this phenomenon: expat viola player Rosemary Nalden. Rosemary’s family is something of a musical dynasty in Auckland. Her father Charles Nalden established New Zealand’s first conservatorium of music. Countless students have been taught violin there by her brother David.

Rosemary’s musical path led her to a career in London. The Buskaid story begins there in 1992, when Rosemary heard a radio item about a group of young string players in Diepkloof, Soweto, struggling for lack of music, instruments and funding. So she began fundraising, starting with a simultaneous “busk” with fellow musicians at sixteen British Rail stations.

In 1997 she established the Buskaid Soweto String Project, providing instruments and tuition and eventually a purpose-built music school.

Success for young players

These young Sowetans from underprivileged backgrounds have toured the world to rave reviews – including a sell-out concert at the BBC Proms this July. They took New Zealand by storm in their previous tour of 2002, filling halls as they went.

The players are selected not for the ability to pay or even for talent but, if anything, for persistence. Rosemary, now Music Director, relates the story of a little girl who used to wander in and listen to the classes. “After three months I thought, ‘I can’t bear this’, and told her she could start.”

Can New Zealand learn from Buskaid? The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is hosting a seminar to explore the possibility, looking at the links between the children of Soweto and some of our own disadvantaged youth.

Rosemary is in no doubt that these players can make it as professionals. One need only look at original leader Samson Diamond, who graduated with first class honours from the Royal Northern College of Music and is freelancing with top British orchestras. Buskaid is opening doors for these players.

Talent unleashed

Several factors have combined to tap this incredible fount of talent. In part, the success is due to the teaching method, pioneered by the late Paul Rolland, which builds on the free flowing movements of dance.

There is also an innate musicianship, according to Euan Murdoch, Chief Executive of Chamber Music New Zealand, cellist and occasional Buskaid tutor. “The young ones are learning by ear, living and breathing it – when they join the senior ensemble, there’s no getting up to speed, they just slot right in.”

“When they perform it has a unique earthy quality,” he says. “Drawing on the rhythmic dance music of their culture, they find that essence in classical music.”

The result is a uniquely dynamic style, one that wows audiences. Rosemary comments that the only time a standing ovation wasn’t forthcoming was when the audience was too elderly. “But they roared their heads off”.

Never the same

For Rosemary it has been a life-changing experience. ”It’s a huge privilege to help people overcome their circumstances. I’ve explored a part of myself that I otherwise never would have known existed.”

When asked if she becomes fond of the children, she answers simply, “I love them."

Rosemary believes growing up in 50s New Zealand, a young country with a pioneering spirit and a sense of adventure, gave her what it took to develop this groundbreaking project.

She retains a love for New Zealand and looks forward to returning to the familiar streets of Auckland. She is touched, too, by the efforts of Chamber Music New Zealand and funding they have received from the government’s Cultural Diplomacy International Programme. “I really appreciate the fact that New Zealand is opening up its heart to us.”

An eclectic programme

The programme for the tour is a mix of Western classical and African street music – moving seamlessly from Mozart to the traditional Kwela protest music, a heritage of the apartheid years. A unique element is added by dancers from the “Dance for All” troupe whose choreography draws on traditional Sowetan Black African and modern hip hop traditions.

The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble will be playing public concerts in Auckland, Manukau City, Napier, Wellington and New Plymouth. For complete details, click on 'Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble Tour' below.

The tour is part of Chamber Music New Zealand’s new Encompass: quality music from around the globe series, a partnership with Te Papa and Stamp at The Edge.

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Article by Emma Brewerton.