This past August saw the MIAGI Orchestra take the motto “Searching the African Footprint” along on its seventh European tour, during which it played in renowned concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Under the baton of David Panzl (mdw), the orchestra’s young musicians wowed audiences with unique arrangements of material ranging from South African compositions to works inspired by the African diaspora.
“Music is a Great Investment”, or MIAGI for short, is a South African non-profit that was founded in 2001. MIAGI’s overarching objective is to nourish social solidarity and new perspectives both in South Africa and worldwide through a diverse array of music education programmes for children and adolescents.
The core component of MIAGI is the MIAGI Orchestra, which has its roots in South Africa’s townships and has been bringing together young musicians of differing cultural backgrounds from all over the country since 2003. On its European tours and in concerts worldwide, this dynamic ensemble elicits tremendous audience enthusiasm. The orchestra brings together traditional African music and jazz as well as Western classical, contemporary, and urban musical styles in a unique way that exemplifies the rich, unifying elements of these genres.
The origin of MIAGI’s artistic concept lies in evening “kwela sessions”—get-togethers of musicians from a broad diversity of ethnic and social backgrounds (and hence also of musical influences) that have ended up producing a special kind of musical magic.
Alongside arrangements and compositions by the two mdw faculty members David Panzl and Markus Geiselhart, 2024 also witnessed the presentation of important works by three South African composers: Musa Mdluli, Tshepo Tsotetsi, and Viwe Mkizwana, all of whom come from the orchestra’s own ranks. The outstanding young South African violinist Bonolo Kgaile was engaged as concertmistress and performed brilliantly not only in her nominal function but also as a soloist in a sensuous arrangement of Miles Davis’s “Blue in Green”. Violist Chevonne Plaatjies, an orchestra member and MIAGI grantee, was entrusted with the task of conducting the solo concerto featuring saxophonist Anders Paulson.
This year, the MIAGI Orchestra’s classical symphonic forces were augmented by the MIAGI Jazz Band—which was itself joined by a ten-person percussion ensemble from the mdw. This ensemble played on a veritable arsenal of percussion instruments, and its musical and energetic qualities made a universally convincing impression. The orchestra’s collaboration with the mdw, its most important Europe-based educational partner, enabled all three ensemble components to be unified over a week of intensive rehearsals in Vienna during which all technical and artistic challenges were mastered.
With five sold-out concerts, its live stream for Arte, and its recorded performance for the German radio station Deutschlandfunk, the MIAGI Orchestra reached an audience of around 270,000 individuals this year and enjoyed a boundlessly enthusiastic public response.
Experience the MIAGI-Orchestra’s tour concluding performance at Konzerthaus Berlin on Arte TV (available for streaming until 21 February 2025).
