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Here is a heartening example of why South Africa is such a vibrant place to visit and/or stay.
“You are what you play, Maria Botha’s violin instructors told her. Learning to manipulate the strings of her instrument before she could read or write, music was the primary medium through which she engaged with the world. That’s how it stayed, as Botha grew up to become a full-time violinist.
Now a teacher, she’s opening a world of musical wonder to kids in South Africa’s townships.
When she was old enough Botha moved to France to pursue music. Her first stop was Paris, where she lived for several years, but Botha’s career truly took off when she started to travel. She moved all over Europe and played everywhere from historic churches to medieval villages, desperate to share her craft with as diverse an audience as possible. Botha eventually settled in Dijon, where she first felt the call to mentor aspiring musicians. She later moved to Lyon to train as a music teacher at the Suzuki Institute.
The teaching method she learnt there is based on the idea that everyone has talent that can be realised within a nurturing environment, the same way we all have the capacity to learn language and become fluent in our mother tongues.
After 23 years away from South Africa, she returned to take care of our next generation of musicians.
Having been given the opportunity to use this teaching style in township schools … Botha is ensuring that kids in rural areas are allowed to enjoy the fruit of their innate musical abilities.
And like it did for her, it could open a new world for them.”
MUZUKIDZ aims to alleviate poverty by providing instrumental tuition to young learners from disadvantaged communities within Cape Town.
The Suzuki method is a remarkable talent building method, based on educating talent from early childhood, developing intellectual capacity, as well as focussing on emotional development.
Time shows that a growing passion and love for the instrument from early childhood years develops emotional stability and self-value before teenage years. This becomes a powerful tool to resist offers in later years leading to self-destruction involving teenagers in crime, drugs and gangsterism.
Through a long term investment in the lives of children, possibilities are also created to find study bursaries, employment in music careers, and to share expertise with other disadvantaged youth in the future.
For Muzukidz to be successful, support is necessary. It could take the form of time through assisting with teaching the children, or through a monetary donation.
Link courtesy of beautifulnews.co.za: Music is my mother tongue, 13 Dec 2017