The Cape Town Philharmonic is playing host to uplifting music lessons

Credit: Sumaya Hisham

Olona Mjakuca is one of many young children being taught to play the violin thanks to a project that uses music to uplift children from disadvantaged areas

The Cape Town Philharmonic is home to the Masidlale grassroots training project which helps children from disadvantaged communities learn to play musical instruments.

Masidlale has reached hundreds of young musicians from all creeds at the grassroots level at places as far flung as Atlantis and Khayelitsha. Most recently, it opened a project in the Prestwich Street Primary School in Green Point, with ten learners, bringing the number of current learners in the project to over 100, aged between 6 and 13.

Thanks to the commitment of two primary school teachers, Phoe Ncube and Dezi van Rooyen, Masidlale is reaching adults too. They have joined the class not only to enrich themselves but also to guide practising kids.

Masidlale aims to teach the values and skills of good music. Their reach has spread far beyond the walls of Artscape where the Cape Flats children come for lessons or the community halls of Atlantis and Mamre.

“One cannot underestimate what a sense of self-worth music brings to these children. Many of them come from impoverished homes. To see the smiles on their faces as they master their music makes everything so worthwhile. The pride in their parents’ eyes when they perform in public is also heart-warming”, says Odile Burden, herself a product of the CPYO in 2003

Olona Mjakuca can be seen learning to play the violin in the pictures supplied. She is a grade 1 pupil who is putting all her effort into learning the classical instrument. She is proud of it and practices every chance she can get.

The grassroots project’s aim is to teach string and woodwind instruments to the youth. You can follow their incredible journey here.