SAMRO laureates to play Online World Jazz Conference

They include singers Daniella Hart and Keorapetse Kolwane and Linda Sikhakhane (saxophone), Ntando Ngcapu (piano) and Benjamin Jephta (bass).

“The Foundation’s main objective is to create and maintain an environment in which the arts in South Africa can flourish, including support to composers, musicians, and arts organisations,” SAMRO Foundation manager James French said. “This year, there is no festival because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are still taking the opportunity to present our jazz laureates to the global jazz community.”

French says the Online World Jazz Conference and the Amersfoort Jazz Festival have been valuable in helping SAMRO and the SAMRO Foundation maintain relationships with its European partners. 

He added: “For each of the past six years, we were able to support and showcase our overseas scholarship competition laureates as part of the Amersfoort Jazz Festival who could perform in front of venue owners, and publicists from around the world. The opportunity has great dividends for them.”

Amersfoort Jazz Festival director Alexander Beets said: “Amersfoort Jazz was lucky to be the host of several laureates from South Africa. They were all superb and made big impressions on both the audiences and our fellow festival directors.”

Beets says many of them toured internationally as a result of their Amersfoort jazz performance. He added: “It’s a unique opportunity to play at such a big festival while at the same time presenting yourself to a worldwide network.”

Previous laureates who have attended the Amersfoort Jazz Festival include jazz musicians Darren English (2012), Bokani Dyer (2014), and Zoë Modiga (2015). Interested viewers can find more about registering for the event here.

Meanwhile, Sikhakhane has been featured in Apple Music’s New Artist Spotlight series for November. Last month, he released his sophomore album An Open Dialogue.