Fostering young jazz talent
Sophia Foster will showcase her students at the Sekunjalo Edujazz Concert
JAZZ SONGBIRD Sophia Foster has long lived out her name – fostering young people interested in a singing career. So she finds the Sekunjalo Edujazz Concert a natural fit. Foster performed at this year’s Cape Town International Jazz Festival with Camillo Lombard’s Cape Town Showcase.
She presents a group of eight of her students as The Foster Kids at Artscape Theatre on Saturday at the 17th annual Edujazz Concert.
The Sekunjalo Edujazz Project is a music programme which runs during the school holidays across greater Cape Town. Every year the Sekunjalo Development Foundation hosts its annual concert at Artscape and all proceeds fund bursaries at more than 75 disadvantaged schools in the Western Cape.
Foster points out that it is all good and well for children to idolise music artists, but they have to learn there is a process to be followed to get you on to a professional stage. It doesn’t just happen overnight, even if a reality TV show like creates that impression.
While the Sekunjalo Edujazz Project is aimed at teaching teenagers about what it takes to become performing musicians, Foster focuses on singers. Hiram Hertogh, Celest Florence, Caitlin Farmer, Zukieswa Minyi. Ashtvan Mintoor, Impho Ngexe, Mohamed George and Abigail Bagley range in age from 12 to 19 and had to audition for her to get this chance to showcase their abilities.
“Here is such a lot of raw talent, God bless them, there are millions in Cape Town alone,” Foster said. She invites children into her studio to teach them about what it takes to become a professional singer, including voice technique and choreography, something she has been doing since the late 1960s.
“I nurture these youngsters because it is all about ‘are you able to sustain a career?’. You can phone me up for a gig tomorrow and say ‘Sophia, I am booking you’ and I will put my programme together and the client who has booked me will be 150% sure that Sophia is going to deliver a professional job. This is what I am educating my kids to be ready for.
“For me, they have to be ready to jump in and deliver a full package. Are you telling a story? Are you sincere? That’s what I’m all about,” explained Foster. “During apartheid years there was nothing available that could make you grow.”
This year high school students taking part in the Sekunjalo Edujazz Big Band will perform under the direction of arranger/ pianist Andrew Ford and, along with The Foster Kids, they have the opportunity to meet the professional musicians who will perform at the Concert. These include The Dynamic Voices
finalist Robin Pieters; contestant Elwira Standili; Cape crooner Jarrad Ricketts; singer/songwriter Lana Crowster, winner of the inaugural 2016 espYoung Legends competition) and legendary bass guitarist Sammy Webber.
The teens will get a chance to meet their idols and pick their brains just before the concert and then watch them in action from behind the stage.
“On stage, because you’re in the spotlight, every little thing counts, whether it is a hand, or stepping forward on the right foot or turning your head in a certain way. It’s composure you have to not create, but feel. That’s what defines what kind of performer you are,” Foster says.
Excited by the potential this concert represents to showcase her students, Foster says she is thinking wider. Her aim is to keep on creating a stage for all children who pass through her studio doors to perform and she will be looking out for more gigs.
She is also talking herself into setting up a foundation of some kind to bring more children into the fold, inspired by the reach of the Sekunjalo Edujazz Project. – Staff Reporter