He shall have music wherever he goes
Whether it’s Bach or the Beatles, there’s nothing like music for lifting the mood. And, arguably, we’ve never needed it more than now, or, for that matter, the musicians who produce it – such as the wandering minstrel of the Overberg, flautist Axolile Hoza.
Just under a year ago, we told the remarkable story of this talented local-boy-made-good from Caledon, who had earned acclaim as an outstanding young performer both in South Africa and on the world stage (The Village NEWS, 25 September 2019).
At that time, Axolile had just returned to the Overberg, and turning his back on fame and fortune, decided to plough back his skills into developing the musical potential of the children of this region. He had joined his original teacher, Stefné van Dyk as part-time Artistic Director of her Kleinmond-based Handevat music project. In a recent FynArts zoom talk, he retold his inspiring story. Like a troubadour of old, every week he moves from Kleinmond to Bot River to Hermanus, reaching, teaching and inspiring literally thousands of children.
Apart from his love of singing, his professional instrument of choice has been the flute (as we previously recounted he was personally presented with a silver flute by the iconic flautist, James Galway). Now, for teaching purposes, he has been challenged to master a whole range of additional musical instruments, from the marimbas to clarinet, saxophone and even violin. And he’s still learning. Through Hermanus Varsity and its relationship with the London School of Music, he’s currently doing a teachers’ diploma course in piano.
In Kleinmond, for Handevat, he works twice a week with 18 individual students as well the organisation’s prize-winning marimba bands (although the latter has not been possible during lockdown); in Bot River, for Lucky Point, also twice a week, he and his colleague, Marlon van Rooyen, again have individual students, as well as a rapidly improving marimba band. But then, in Hermanus, as part of the FynArts development programme, his focus changes completely.
“It’s in the early years that it should begin – a love of music and a basic understanding of how it works. Most children are not really exposed to the mechanics of music-making until at least Grade 3, but I think if you reach them really young, that’s when they learn the most – they just soak it up.” You can hear the excitement in Axolile’s voice. “But then we decided to take it a step further and teach the teachers so that there is a multiplier effect.”
As he explains, most of the teachers at the three ECD centres that he visits once a week, together with Zwelihle Primary and Mount Pleasant Primary, have had no musical training themselves, with the result that they dodge the subject as much as they can. “I spend about an hour at each school,” he explains, “the first 15 minutes doing a presentation myself; then the teachers give a practical demonstration of what they have learnt and afterwards we spend about half an hour on discussion and feedback.
“What we want to do is to get the children to understand the basics, like rhythm, pitch, tone – we’ve even created some new songs with them,” he laughs. “So when they’re older and want to learn to play an instrument, they’ll already have a baseline.”
Most of the teachers have also taken to it like ducks to water and are learning to read music, as well as introductory-level keyboard technique. Zwelihle and Mount Pleasant Primary Schools had each been given a piano by the FynArts Development Fund, but since no one knew how to play them, they just sat there gathering dust. Now, with the help of Axolile, they are beginning to use them for choir practice and were recently proud to participate in a choral eisteddfod.
Lockdown has been particularly difficult for the teaching of a hands-on nuanced subject like music, but Axolile says they have experimented with various options like sending the students short teaching videos and getting them to send back videos of their own. The teachers have also received regular 15-minute videos. Fortunately, individual learners can now be accommodated in face-to-face classes, but group activities have had to be suspended for now.
Something Axolile says a lot is how happy he is where he is, and how fulfilling he finds teaching; what a huge kick he gets when a struggling student suddenly ‘gets it’. He still tries to keep honing his own professional skills and tries to play whenever he can. He has been invited to join the MIAGI Youth Orchestra with which he performed before, on a tour to Paris in October. Time will tell, of course, whether this will be possible.
In the meantime, he, Stefné and Professor Caroline van Niekerk, formerly of the University of Pretoria, are working on a very exciting collaboration with Hermanus Varsity. Not only is the Varsity planning to place a strong emphasis on the arts, especially music, in new courses it is introducing, but the rapidly evolving dream is to create a full orchestra for the Overstrand, under the joint auspices of Handevat and the Varsity.
All in all, there can be no doubt that this enthusiastic young musician (he is only 25) will always be knee-deep in the action and, come what may, there will always be music wherever he goes.