The composer Enoch Sontonga wrote Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika over 120 years ago. To celebrate the anniversary of his beautiful song we found this performance to share with you.
Enoch Sontonga composed Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika over 120 years ago, yesterday the 18th of April, was the anniversary of his passing so to honour him and his song we decided to share a video of the South African National Youth Orchestra playing the song.
The song was originally written in 1897 as a hymn and has since been the national anthem of five African countries including Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe and Namibia have since adopted new national anthems. The song is currently the national anthem of Tanzania and, since 1994, a portion of the national anthem of South Africa.
The South African National Youth Orchestra shared their video of the beautiful song as the national anthem. Their video was filled with clips of the orchestra practicing the song in various places and you can hear them celebrating at the end of the video.
The South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation is the leader of the youth orchestral movement in the country, inspiring young musicians to pursue the highest standards of musical performance.
The Foundation has contributed to scholarship programmes from 2002-2016 for worthy musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds to continue their music studies and most of these recipients have now become members of professional orchestras. The Foundation also inspired and provided start-up funding for the Field Band Foundation, now servicing 5000 disadvantaged youth between the ages of 7 and 25, nationally.
The orchestra has performed with many people including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Judith Sephuma, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir James Galway, Barbara Hendricks, Jimmy Nevis, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and Grammy Award winning artists Magnus Lindgren and Osmo Vanska, among many other notable artists and personalities.
You can watch the beautiful video below,
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