FOSAPA Presents
SOUTH AFRICA'S POLOKWANE CHORAL SOCIETY:
25 YEARS OF AWARD-WINNING PERFORMANCE

"This group's primary mission has been to preserve and celebrate native South African music. Mission accomplished. Their joyous strains and swaying dance steps drew enormous applause." - Peter Jackson, St. John's Telegram, 1999

For 25 years, the Polokwane Choral Society, from South Africa's northern province of Limpopo, has gone from strength to strength - winning awards in its native country, and dazzling audiences abroad with its vibrant sound.

Wherever the choir goes, audiences are swept onto their feet, swaying and clapping along to the infectious rhythms and full-voice singing of South African songs of life and struggle.

The Polokwane Choral Society is a non-profit community choir that comprises men and women of all walks of life. Home base is the city of Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg in what was the Transvaal), 60 km S. of the Tropic of Capricorn. Choristers - some of whom come from over an hour away - must commit to a vigorous rehearsal and performance schedule, and the finest of the choir are selected for the smaller core ensemble that is chosen for touring.

Since it was founded in 1979, the choir has bridged ethnic gaps in South Africa by fostering mutual understanding between people of different cultures and viewpoints. In 1996 Polokwane became the first South African choir to be racially mixed.

The choir sings in most of 11 of South Africa's official languages, its repertoire ranging from tribal songs to hymns from the black church traditions, South African tonic sol-fa music, and songs of struggle against Apartheid. To these they have added works from the classics, spirituals and their own South African gospel. The choir's in-house composer, Timothy Mabaso, a gifted musician, tells the stories behind the tribal songs. African drums, shakers and leg rattles often punctuate the vigorous, unamplified a capella singing.

In 1992, the choir was the first to bring to the stage a traditional and scored African song, Morabaraba, by Timothy Mabaso, complete with drums and dancing. The community has come to expect novel presentations each year as the choir ascends the national stage.

Polokwane produces local performances, but also travels the province and the country, enlivening cultural, women's, AIDS and church events, all on a volunteer basis.

Under the inspired direction of Matlakala Bopape and the choir's late founder, Sefoloko H.H. Ramokgopa, the choir has won numerous prizes at South African regional and national music competitions and festivals since its beginning. Ms. Bopape has also captured awards as best conductor.

And the choir has appeared abroad - performing at the 1995 eisteddfod in Neuchātel, Switzerland; conducting workshops in Italy with the traditional Vermont folk group Village Harmony, giving U.S. concerts in New York, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and Hartford, and playing Newfoundland's Festival 500, Sharing the Voices, in 1999; and returning to Canada in 2001. In 2002, the choir was invited to conduct workshops on African music and dance in the U.S. and U.K. In 2003, it hosted the African Meropa International Choral Festival, in 2003, the first such event in Limpopo province, and the first folk-singing festival in South Africa.

As much as the Polokwane choristers enjoy their singing and travels, this is a choir with a mission. The talents of South African disadvantaged youth have been channelled into organized drama, dance groups and a 70-voice youth choir that feeds into the larger Choral Society.

The Polokwane Choral Society was formed with a goal of discovering and nurturing musical talent within South Africa, and of building an international awareness of and appreciation for the South African choral tradition. These tours heighten the choir's professionalism, which is useful when it mentors other South African choirs.

NEW CDS AND MUSIC BOOKS LAUNCHED ON TOUR

The Society has produced notated booklets and compact discs to preserve the South African cultural heritage, which has traditionally been transmitted orally. When FOSAPA - The Friends of South African Performing Arts - presents South Africa Sings: A Tour of Eastern Canada by the Polokwane Choral Society, the choir will include workshops for educators, schoolchildren and musicians.

New books will be available with musical scores of the choir's four-part harmonies, published by Northern Harmony.

Two new CDs produced by FOSAPA will be launched and on sale during the tour, which celebrates 10 Years of Freedom. Dinaledi and We Keep Singing both incorporate traditional folk, wedding and freedom songs. The former title expresses the choir's hope for its future and that of its country. The latter was inspired by the response of narrator/composer Timothy Mabaso, when asked in 2001 how the choir survived the repressive years of Apartheid: "We kept singing."

REGIONAL AND NATIONAL PRIZES WON BY POLOKWANE

1980    TUATA competition (local)
1981    Ford Choirs Competition (national)
1987    Ford Choirs national competition - local winner
1989    Lebowa Agricultural Show (regional)
1990    National Choir Festival and Old Mutual/Caltex Music Festival -
           Represented the north Lebowa Agricultural Show Metropolitan 
           Competition (regional) - first prize
1991    Lebowa Agricultural Show - first prize
        Metropolitan Life Music Festival - first prize
        Radio Thohoyandou (Venda) - first prize.  Matlakala Bopape received 
	trophy and R500 as best conductor.
1992    Metropolitan Life Music Festival - regional champion
            Old Mutual/Caltex Music Festival - regional champion
        National Choir Festival - Best conductor prize
1993    Metropolitan Life Music Festival - First prize for three of five
            prescribed songs.
        Old Mutual/Caltex Music Festival - First prize for one song of
            two (regional)
1996    National Choir Festival - regional champions (large section)
1997    National Choir Festival - regional champion
        Metropolitan Life Music Festival - regional champion (female, male 
	    and western section)
1998    Old Mutual/Telkom - regional champion. Obtained position 3 at 
	    national level.
        Metropolitan Life Music Festival - regional champion (female and
            western section)
1999    Old Mutual/Telkom - regional champion, represented the province at
            the national level.
2000    National Choir Festival - regional champions.

For further information (media only), contact:

Linda Litwack 416-782-7837 e-mail: lalitwack@rogers.com

Audrey Conroy e-mail: fosapa@ns.sympatico.ca visit www.fosapa.ca

These are contacts for the media only ! For all other queries, please call local phone numbers listed on Polokowne's Tour to Canada

May 2004