BUSKAID - SOWETO STRINGS ORCHESTRA

MAKING MUSIC IN SOUTH AFRICA 🌍🌟

Buskaid is a thriving Academy of String Teaching and Performance, situated in the heart of the South African Township of Soweto. Its primary mission is to give opportunities to impoverished and previously disadvantaged township children to learn classical (bowed) string instruments to the highest international standards. Buskaid also runs a highly successful string teacher-training programme, and nine of its eleven teachers are drawn from within its student membership. Its flagship Ensemble, which has gained international recognition, was voted one of the world’s most inspirational orchestras by the UK’s Gramophone magazine in 2008. 

In 2017 Buskaid celebrates a double Anniversary: 25 years since its inception, and 20 years since the opening of its Soweto-based project.

Buskaid was founded in 1992 by British viola player Rosemary Nalden, in response to a BBC radio interview highlighting the difficulties of a group of young string players in Diepkloof, Soweto. Rosemary responded by organising a fundraising event, when 120 professional musicians ‘busked’ simultaneously in 16 British Rail stations across the UK.
In January 1997 when the original project had fallen into difficulties, Rosemary established the Buskaid Soweto String Project. Initially, the fledgeling music school, situated in a tiny run-down church office in Diepkloof, consisted of fifteen members from the original project and a handful of new beginners. Since then, in response to the huge demand by local children to learn a stringed instrument, it has grown exponentially, and currently comprises approximately 115 students ranging in age from five to thirty-five, all of whom are drawn from the less privileged local community. The Buskaid Soweto Academy of String Teaching and Performance is now situated in its own purpose-built school in the grounds of another church in Diepkloof. In the 20 years of its existence, the organisation has grown from a modest social development project into an internationally recognised institution of high-quality string teaching and performance.

What the nominator wrote:
Buskaid has accomplished the difficult task of creating an ecosystem where classical music can thrive. It has done this in a poor community which has little access to classical music. This ecosystem comprises teaching children to play instruments, training teachers, an instrument repair workshop, securing access to higher education opportunities for deserving students and a string ensemble.