{"id":23415,"date":"2017-03-17T03:36:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T10:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=23415"},"modified":"2017-03-14T14:16:55","modified_gmt":"2017-03-14T21:16:55","slug":"hear-my-music-premieres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/03\/17\/hear-my-music-premieres\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear My Music premi\u00e8res"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>At the premi\u00e8re of <em>Hear My Music<\/em> at Labia Theatre in Cape Town on Feb. 15, are, left to right, Ntandazo (Didi) Gcingca, associate producer, and Dizu Plaatjies, the documentary\u2019s subject, with Wendy Bross Stuart and Ron Stuart of WRS Productions. <em>(photo from WRS Productions)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Dizu Plaatjies is a performer, scholar and cultural activist who has devoted his adult life to indigenous African music. His journey from childhood in the Eastern Cape and Langa Township to concert stages worldwide is the compelling story that is the focus of the documentary <em>Hear My Music: The Dizu Plaatjies Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-23421\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mar-17-film.17.Dizu-IF-NEEDED-as-INSET-DSC_0351.jpeg\" alt=\"photo - Dizu Plaatjies is a performer, scholar and cultural activist who has devoted his adult life to indigenous African music. His journey from childhood in the Eastern Cape and Langa Township to concert stages worldwide is the compelling story that is the focus of the documentary Hear My Music: The Dizu Plaatjies Story\" width=\"300\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mar-17-film.17.Dizu-IF-NEEDED-as-INSET-DSC_0351.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mar-17-film.17.Dizu-IF-NEEDED-as-INSET-DSC_0351-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/mar-17-film.17.Dizu-IF-NEEDED-as-INSET-DSC_0351-100x150.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Cultural Odyssey Films and WRS Productions (comprised of Vancouver\u2019s Ron Stuart and Wendy Bross Stuart) premi\u00e8red the documentary on Feb. 15 at Labia Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Plaatjies has a vast international following, both of overseas students at the University of Cape Town, where he teaches, and fans of his recordings and concert work. Throughout his career he has maintained a commitment to nurturing a younger generation of artists, and founded the Amampondo ensemble. Among the first African musicians to tour extensively, they became familiar to world music lovers in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and throughout Africa. They were a personal favourite of the late Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu.<\/p>\n<p>Plaatjies recognized the need of local musicians for access to authentic and reasonably priced indigenous instruments, and has embarked on a program of instrument-making with apprentices from the region. His love of traditional African melodies and rhythms from various cultural sources has led to significant \u201csalvage ethnomusicology\u201d work. Apart from his own Xhosa heritage, he has promoted the musical styles of groups throughout southern Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his accomplishments and wide recognition, Plaatjies remains an approachable and humble individual. He is at home teaching children in a township school, exchange students at the university, and specialists in African music. On stage, he still exudes the enthusiasm he had when busking on the streets of Cape Town as a young musician in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the premi\u00e8re of Hear My Music at Labia Theatre in Cape Town on Feb. 15, are, left to right, Ntandazo (Didi) Gcingca, associate producer, and Dizu Plaatjies, the documentary\u2019s subject, with Wendy Bross Stuart and Ron Stuart of WRS Productions. (photo from WRS Productions) Dizu Plaatjies is a performer, scholar and cultural activist who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[787],"tags":[6849,4658],"class_list":["post-23415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-film","tag-dizu-plaatjies","tag-wrs-productions"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}