NWU lecturer wins prestigious music award

This year’s winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music is Dr Cara Stacey, a senior lecturer in African Music at the NWU School of Music. According to a colleague, Jaco van der Merwe, the award recognises her exceptional talent as a composer and performer.

The National Arts Festival’s artistic committee described her music as “rich and complex and, at the same time, beautifully accessible.” According to them, “her practice envelopes indigenous and electronic music through the filters of history, social issues and nature. Her work draws from life and forms bridges for the listener to access worlds that might have been elusive to them.”

Besides the piano, she performs on various African music instruments like the uhadi, umrhubhe, makhoyane, budongo and mbira.

In addition to solo performances, she also collaborates regularly with other musicians and has already released four albums. Stacey is a musicologist who focuses on indigenous southern African music and musical traditions, which she is committed to contextualising and preserving.

Dr Stacey is thrilled at winning this important accolade. “So many incredible performers and composers, across genres, have received this award and I was so surprised when I received the news. It means so much to me, considering the kind of music I have made over the years – not always the most mainstream or accessible sounds and recordings.”

She says she has always been interested in making different kinds of music. “To have an artist like me awarded is so meaningful because I create music in different ways. I would love to thank Standard Bank for its crucial and unwavering support of the arts. These awards and the other support Standard Bank provides form a crucial part of our artistic ecosystem here in South Africa. I would also like to thank all the brilliant musicians who have played with me, indulged my requests and taught me over the years,” says Stacey.