Americans arrive in White River for music festival
In the week leading up to the Route 40 Music Festival from December 3 to 6, the Casterbridge Music Development Academy (CMDA) will welcome a group of visitors from the USA, comprising six local youngsters who are finalists in a songwriting competition.
WHITE RIVER – The competition was a collaboration between the Rock School Scholarship Fund (RSSF), the Carnegie Hall Musical Exchange Programme in the USA and the CMDA. The visitors will spend a few days prior to the festival making music with the six CMDA finalists, and the public can see the results of this collaboration on the Coca-Cola Youth Stage. All performances on the stage are open to the public at no cost. Local finalists in the songwriting contest are Daniel Bruce-Brand, Lara Gear, Kelly Johannes, Jennifer Rodrigues, Courtney Grobler, Ryan Mandy and Jacqueline Roux. The winner will be announced at the festival.
Accompanying the young students from the USA is Carl Restivo, co-founder and music director of RSSF. Restivo has an outstanding music résumé as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, writer and producer.
He currently plays guitar and sings with Tom Morello’s The Nightwatchman. From 2009 to 2010, he was a guitarist in Rihanna’s band for her worldwide promo tour. In 2006 and 2007, he was also the bassist for Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party and a year later the lead guitarist for Farrell’s solo venture. He has also performed with Slash, Jerry Cantrell, Wayne Kramer, Iggy Pop, Mick Mars, Flea, Stewart Copeland, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, The Doors, Ben Harper, Trent Reznor, and many more.
Restivo co-wrote “Go All The Way” (into the Twilight) with Farrell on the over 3,5 million platinum soundtrack for the movie Twilight.
He was one of the architects of the School of Rock’s proprietary music curriculum. He was also a designer of their studio production programme, and he continues to be a high-level consultant to School of Rock’s leadership team. As music director of the RSSF, Restivo oversees all music-related initiatives and secures special guests for local school fund-raisers when possible.
RSSF is a non-profit organisation in the USA that provides scholarships and instruments for children aged seven to
17 years who want to attend any rock music school in the USA. A rock music school teaches kids to play music with a curriculum that includes Led Zeppelin, The Who, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, and Black Sabbath – the classics. Wendy Winks will accompany Restivo. She is a producer and the founder and executive director of RSSF.
She champions artists and projects that make a difference in the world. Her clients have written several movies for Hallmark and Disney, most notably Camp Rock.
Winks has also produced two independent films and a movie for Hallmark. One, a family comedy entitled Dog Gone was distributed on DVD by Universal. She also produced a holiday movie for Hallmark called Santa Jr.
Tickets for the Route 40 Music Festival are available from www.2Enable.org and www.webtickets.co.za.
Enquiries: 013-351-3135/3171. Find them on Facebook at www.facebook/mpuma.music
