Baroque Bridges: Ensemble Hesperi joins forces with Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble

This week, the period instrument Ensemble Hesperi is joining forces with the South African group Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble for a series of joint events. Under the title Baroque Bridges there are concerts at St Mary’s Church, Bathwick, Bath (18 August) and St Giles Cripplegate, London (20 August), along with a concert from Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble, Music Hath no Borders at the Foundling Museum (21 August).

For Baroque Bridges the two ensembles present a joyful programme of familiar favourites and lesser-known gems for strings, recorder and harpsichord, building musical bridges across time, borders and cultures. There will be music by Bach, Telemann, Handel, Purcell and Rameau, along with two composers of African descent, Joseph Bologne and Ignatius Sancho. And at the end of the concert there will be  Kwela music, an improvised genre of street music with roots in traditional African township music and anti-apartheid protest songs, arranged and performed (with dance moves!) by members of the Buskaid ensemble.

Buskaid started in 1991 when British viola player Rosemary Nalden heard about the difficulties facing a group of young string players in Diepkloof, Soweto and 120 of Rosemary’s professional colleagues took part in a simultaneous ‘busk’ at sixteen British Rail stations, raising £6000 to support the young township musicians [see footage on YouTube]. In 1997 Rosemary moved to South Africa to establish the Buskaid Soweto String Project and the Buskaid Music School, built in 1999.

The Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble consists of talented young musicians, all Buskaid-trained, who perform a variety of western classical, classic pop, Afro-pop, traditional township ‘vibe’, and, most recently, South Africa’s own Amapiano. The ensemble developed from an elementary string group into a world-renowned string ensemble with an impressive track record for high quality, stylistic performances. 

Further information from Ensemble Hesperi’s page on Continuo Connect.