12 finalists announced for Samro competition
JOHANNESBURG – Samro unveils 12 instrumentalist finalists for scholarships competition
The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) Foundation announced the young instrumentalists semi-finalists for the 2016 Overseas Scholarships competition.
The 12 musicians, consisting of six finalists in the Jazz category and six in the Western Art Music category will be competing for two scholarships worth R200 000 each to further their music studies abroad and receive an array of additional awards.
André le Roux, Samro Foundation managing director, praised the persistence of some of these musicians who had re-entered the competition, which rotates on a four-yearly cycle between singers, instrumentalists, composers and keyboard players. “What is interesting about our competition is that some performers hold it in such high regard that they are willing to wait a long time to re-enter our competition,” he said.
“For us, it bears testament to the stature of this competition that we are seeing repeat entrants, some from eight years ago and others from four years ago.”
He added that this also spoke to the values of persistence, patience and perseverance – qualities which often made for long-term successful careers in the music business.
The six Jazz semi-finalists are Keenan Ahrends (guitar), Justin Bellairs (alto saxophone), Siyasanga Charles (trombone), Benjamin Jephta (bass guitar), Sidney Rash (drums) and Linda Sikhakhane (tenor saxophone).
The Western Art Music semi-finalists are Matthew Lombard (saxophone), Sally Minter (flute), Myles Roberts (flute), Neil Robertson (flute), Dylan Tabisher (marimba) and Tatiana Thaele (flute).
The 12 will compete in a semi-final round taking place on 18 August this year in Johannesburg, which will be judged by a high-level panel of music professionals.
From the 12, the panel of judges will then select two Jazz and two Western Art Music finalists to go head-to-head in a grand finale public concert, which will take place at the Linder Auditorium in Parktown on 20 August.
Previous winners of the golden double – a Samro scholarship and a Young Artist award – include Darren English, Bokani Dyer, Kesivan Naidoo and Ben Schoeman.
The competition is regarded as the country’s most lucrative music education award, with total prize money currently amounting to some R500 000 per year and has been held since 1962.
