The Pretoria Symphony Orchestra is a community-based orchestra that puts on beautiful shows for children and their carers from homes throughout the city.
Tshwane, South Africa (11 June 2024) — On Sunday, 9 June 2024, the Pretoria Symphony Orchestra (PSO) launched the first of many community outreach initiatives during its Life In Symphony performance at the ZK Matthews Hall at UNISA.
The PSO is an orchestra by the people, for the people. Although some of the orchestra members are full-time musicians, music teachers and students, all permanent PSO members – also those who do not have a career in music – devote their time to rehearsals and concerts without financial compensation, their only incentive is a passion for music.
This past Sunday, the PSO took its role as a community orchestra one step further. This passion for classical music was shared not only with regular concertgoers and lovers of classical music but also with children and caregivers who reside in children’s homes all over Tshwane. The latter were invited to attend the performance free of charge!
Little faces lit up during a demonstration of the individual instruments before the concert started and little hands imitated the hands of the conductor, Jaco van Staden, as little ears were – for the first time – exposed to the beautiful sounds of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite no. 1. Spontaneous cheers went up after a performance of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto, expertly played by soloist Samir Dookie.
After the performance, Dr. Paul Vaandrager, the orchestra committee member in charge of community outreach, said:
“Music, especially classical music, is very special to us. Every orchestra member can remember the first time that they heard a symphony orchestra play live, and it made a lasting impression on all of us.
We feel that it is incredibly important to share the magic with children who may never have such an opportunity otherwise.
For this concert, there were more than 100 children in attendance and they were mesmerized. One in particular said she had ‘chills’ from the music’
We consider it an enormous privilege to have had them in the audience!”
What really put the ‘community’ into ‘community orchestra’ for this outreach project, however, was that it was entirely funded by the community itself. Through crowdfunding, supporters of the arts in and outside of Tshwane were given the opportunity to contribute as little or as much as they could to make the project possible. And did they deliver! Not only did every child attend for free, but they were also transported to and from the venue at the expense of the PSO and were given a delicious snack.
This was the first of, hopefully, many PSO community outreach programmes. Depending on the community’s support, even more children will attend in the future.
For more information on the PSO, its upcoming performances and community outreach initiatives, contact pretoria.symphony@gmail.com and be sure not to miss the next concert, which will be French-themed, on 18 August 2024, at 15h00 in the ZK Matthews Hall at UNISA.
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