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Joburg’s leading divas and a massed choir will launch the city’s month-long celebration of the arts at a free music extravaganza tonight in Newtown
Joburg will be ablaze with talent at the opening night extravaganza of the Arts Alive International Festival in Newtown on Thursday, 3 September.
Festival-goers will be moving to the rhythms and beats of musicians like jazz singer Dorothy Masuku, kicking off the Joburg’s celebration of arts and culture.
Dorothy Masuku
The festival will open with a free public performance, expected to draw hordes of people into Newtown’s Mary Fitzgerald Square on Thursday night. Arts Alive, a month-long event sponsored by the City of Johannesburg, will run from 3 to 27 September. Parking is available behind the Market Theatre.
Dorothy Masuku, celebrating her birthday on the opening night, will perform on stage with Sibongile Khumalo, Gloria Bosman and Abigail Kubheka. Underlying the divas’ performances will be a massed children’s choir from Craighall Primary (Craighall), Ebuhleni Primary (Soweto), Cyrildene Primary (Cyrildene) and Minerva High (Alexandra).
They will sing up a storm, including “The Arts Alive” anthem, composed by Dennis East and Nik Sakellarides and featuring Sibongile Khumalo as soloist for the opening. The anthem’s underlying message is “to keep the arts alive”.
The executive mayor of Joburg, Amos Masondo, who will address the audience at the event, will officially open the Arts Alive International Festival for 2009. Stephanie van Straten, the city's junior mayor, and seven of her councillors will take to the stage representing each of Joburg's seven regions as well as the different arts disciplines covered at the festival such as music, poetry, visual arts, comedy, theatre and dance.
“This year’s programme proves that Arts Alive is not just a highly anticipated fixture in Johannesburg and nationally, but is fast becoming a defining global cultural festival that confirms our great city as the cultural hub of the continent and the real arts destination,” says Steven Sack, the city’s arts, culture and heritage director.
Freedom to Dance
Freedom to Dance and Jazz on the Lake will take Joburgers into the weekend.
Freedom to Dance, partnered by YFM, will be staged at Carfax, Newtown on 4 September. This youth dance production will celebrate South African talent. Rocco Rodamaal, DJ MaG, DJ Mo, DJ Oskido, and DJ Monde are among the artists that will be performing.
Jazz on the Lake
Jazz on the Lake will showcase a line-up that includes Senegal’s Omar Pene, Selaelo Selota, Zulu Boy and the Standard Bank Young Artists jazz trio of Concord Nkabinde, Kesivan Naidoo and Mark Fransmann. This will take place at Zoo Lake, Parkview on 6 September.
The Arts Alive 2009 outreach programme consists of workshops, shows and collaborative events to take place in Joburg’s townships and other areas not regularly serviced by the arts and culture community.
Coinciding with the festival will be the fourth World Summit on Arts and Culture, which will run from 22 to 25 September. This summit will draw arts and culture policymakers, funders and representatives of international, regional and national artist networks – some 400 delegates from over 70 countries.
In addition, the 2009 Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition is taking place at Museum Africa from 2 to 5 September.
For the full 2009 Joburg Arts Alive International Festival programme go to www.artsalive.co.za
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