Vusi Mahlasela emerges from 13-year studio hiatus for Wits VC's Annual Concert
- Wits University
Vusi 'The Voice' Mahlasela received a standing ovation at the 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Annual Concert on 24 October at the Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall.
Wits’ Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, FRS – a physicist and a jazz aficionado – initiated the VC’s Annual Concert in 2022. This was the University’s centenary year during which the Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall opened.
Officially named the Wits Vice-Chancellor’s Annual Concert in its 2023 iteration, the event has proved a highlight on the Braam music and arts calendar. Since 2022, the VC’s Annual Concert has consistently enthralled and delighted Witsies and Joburgers alike.
Hosted by the VC himself, Wits Music in the School of Arts, with the inestimable Professor Carlo Mombelli at the helm, deliver the musical magic.
Welcoming guests at the 2024 concert, Vilakazi said, “The musical extravaganza presented this evening is entrenched in artistic talent and creative research – a fitting order – as Wits eases into its second century of excellence. The diverse performances and unique performers reflect Wits’ vibrant community and its global impact.”
These diverse performances included the headline act Vusi ‘The Voice’ Mahlasela; pianist Malcolm Nay with violinist Zanta Hofmeyr; and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra violinists Kabelo Motlhomi and Carli D’Alebout, Lynne Daphne Rudolph (viola), and Daliwonga Tshangela (cello).
Vusi Mahlasela is renowned for his distinct, powerful voice and his poetic, optimistic lyrics. His songs of hope connect apartheid-scarred South Africa with its promise for a better future. Mahlasela performed songs from his latest album, Umoya, released in September 2023. This deeply personal work is Mahlasela’s first studio album of new songs in 13 years and a return to his folk music roots.
Umoya was nominated for two South African Music Awards in the categories Best African Adult Contemporary Album and Best Engineered Album. The album was also a Grammy Award consideration for Best Global Music Album.
Malcolm Nay is one of South Africa’s leading solo and chamber pianists, having performed in numerous concerts both locally and abroad. He has performed several concertos with South African orchestras as well the premiere of Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Pendulum for piano and orchestra.
Nay is a founding member of (amongst other) the Wits Piano trios which have enjoyed considerable success. The current chamber ensemble of The Wits Trio comprises Zanta Hofmeyr (violin) and Susan Mouton (cello). Nay is an alumnus of Wits University and a recently retired associate professor.
South African-born Zanta Hofmeyr graduated from the Juilliard School in New York. She performed her New York debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weil Recital Hall) in 1985 as winner of the Artists International competition.
As well as being a member of The Wits Trio, Hofmeyr is a member of the new piano quartet Take Four, and this all-women ensemble performs annually during Women’s Month in August. Her affiliation with Wits University entails having taught violin students as a part-time staff member since 1994 and also as chamber musician in collaboration with musicians from the Wits School of Music.
Carli D’Alebout is a performing violinist and teacher. After taking up the violin at the age of eight, she was a student of Zanta Hofmeyr’s for six years. D'Alebout holds a PhD in Violin Performance from Northwest University now regularly plays with the JPO, the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Mzanzi National Philharmonic Orchestra. She is the first violinist of the Serendipity Quartet (2022-2023). She was one of just four classical musicians selected to represent South Africa at the premier of the G20 summit orchestra hosted in Indonesia in September 2022.
Lynn Daphne Rudolph is a multi-award-winning violist and internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist from South Africa. Rudolph is “drawn to sound as protest as a means to express and transmute the injustices of colonialism, apartheid and imperialism.” Rudolph explores “sound as protest” through improvisation as a form of liberation, accompanied by audio and visual archival material. Rudolph’s awards include featuring in the 2024 Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans and winning the South African Strings Foundation competition in 2022.
Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) violinist Kabelo Motlhomi is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. Since his return to South Africa in 2009, he has collaborated with the likes of Hugh Masekela and Sibongile Khumalo and continues to freelance as a concert master and soloist.
Cellist Daliwonga Tshangela holds a Master’s in music from the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, Roosevelt University. On returning to South Africa, he initiated the Khulile Music Project in Motherwell while teaching for the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra in 2002. He relocated to Johannesburg in 2007 to become a member of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto and a touring member of the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mombelli said, “Music must uplift you, transport you through stories, challenge you and touch your inner being. It keeps a record of time, history, and culture, and unites us in a song. Through music we give thanks and rejoice. It comforts people in their mourning and sorrow and brings some form of hope and faith. And, in the end, we all sense that music is some sort of a miracle.”