Accomplished cellist and composer Dr Thokozani Mhlambi set to showcase a program of musical heritage this September at the Baxter Theatre.
After his stint of performing in France over the past two years, revered South African composer and cellist Dr Thokozani Mhlambi kicks off a homecoming tour in Cape Town next month – presenting his new material created in Paris as well as some of the favourites from his debut album.
The 35-year-old KwaZulu-Natal composer and cultural thinker is set to perform at the Baxter Theatre on 18 September, at the Baxter Garden, with his Homecoming Tour concert.
“I’m really excited because Baxter Theatre has established a Garden venue, which is in keeping with the times, in terms of health protocols. Performing in an outdoor setting has a different kind of communication with your audience than a traditional theatre venue,” says Mhlambi.
The concert takes as an inspiration Heritage Month, and the diversity of our cultural influences. It will open with a solemn dedication to early African composers (the likes of Enoch Sontonga, John Knox Bokwe, to mention a few), and then will be followed by further live acts. Culminating with a meditative set played by Mhlambi, which will reflect the influences he came across: there are traces of Arab influence from interacting with Oud players on the streets of Paris, some Kora-sounding reflections from links with immigrants, roaming musical griots, from Mali.
“Heritage Month is an important time for bringing people together. The global pandemic has really redefined our own understanding of togetherness. Music however continues to play an important role in promoting diversity of languages (especially African languages) and lifestyles that must define an era. By these lifestyles I mean those conscious choices we make that mark our time as different to that of the Sophiatown cultural movement, or District Six back in the days. We must find the question of our time. This question becomes what our art then tries to unravel, in its multiplicity of shapes and forms,” explains Mhlambi.
Firmly intact is a Zulu aura in the collection of works, arising out of Mhlambi’s firm cultural footing, as a KwaZulu-Natal born artist. He says that Mother City fans are “in for a treat”
“This concert is unique in terms of the diversity of energies it brings together. Some coming from my global travels, others which are brought by the various contributors. I like the fact that audiences in Cape Town are very open-minded, they don’t come with the expectation of seeing the same. As a result it always gives me a challenge in terms of what I bring forward.”
Mhlambi is joined on stage by friends, some of South Africa’s most vibrant artists. Mhlambi is set to feature Cape Town-based dancer/choreographer, Theo Kolisile Ndindwa, jazz pianist Lonwabo Mafani and AfroFuturistic Soul singer, Kitso Seti – cooking up an afro-international melting pot in this Heritage event.
GET YOUR TICKETS
Tickets for Homecoming Tour can be purchased via www.webtickets.co.za, and are R100 each (R50 for students and pensioners). Direct booking link for tickets:https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/Event.aspx?itemid=1507938063
For more details about Thokozani, visit his website: http://thokozanimhlambi.com or on Facebook: @thokozani.music
ABOUT DR THOKOZANI MHLAMBI
- Dr Thokozani Mhlambi is not your usual musician. Not only does he play the cello, sing and compose his own songs, but Mhlambi uses his art and exhibitions in order to convey African stories/philosophies.
- Born in Madadeni, KwaZulu-Natal, after fulfilling music studies in South Africa & Sweden, Mhlambi received his Phd in Music at the University of Cape Town. In South Africa, he has showcased work at leading platforms such as the National Arts Festival, Baxter Theatre, Soweto Theatre and the State Theatre in Pretoria—where he drew audiences from all walks of life. He has also been a visiting lecturer at universities in Finland (Jyvaskyla), Brazil, to mention a few. And has had opportunities to perform and speak in places such as New Orleans (Tulane), São Paulo, Maputo (Mozambique), New York and Vancouver (Canada).
- Recently, Mhlambi’s rendition of Lizalise Idinga Lakho by Tiyo Soga (from his debut album Zulu Song Cycle), was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mhlambi was an invited contributor to the roaming academy of the Dutch Art Institute, an itinerant program fostering a variety of creative practices at the intersection of art & theory. In 2019, he collaborated with revered Chinese visual artist Dachan, in a live performance/installation at the Zeitz Mocca Museum in Cape Town.
- In 2020, Mhlambi was selected as an Artist in-Residence at Cite International Des Arts in Paris, supported by the Institut Français. He used the time to connect with artists from different parts of the world, and more specifically the African continent, and to develop new creative work.
- As a Postdoctoral Fellow in Archive & Public Culture at the University of Cape Town (UCT), his research interest are in the archive of ‘early African Intellectuals as Composers’, which includes the likes of Enoch Sontonga, John & Nokutela Dube, Reuben Caluza, to mention a few.
- He also has an interest in precolonial African artistic-crafts specialists and the implications thereof for regional mobilities. This as part of the Re-centring AfroAsia: Musical & Human Migrations project also at UCT.