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TV actor to narrate gospel show

THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FESTIVAL. Sibongile Mngoma during "An African Celebration" of the 25 years of sponsorship of the National Arts Festival at the Monument in Grahamstown. The celebration featured several past and present winners of Standard Bank Young Artist award. Picture By : Tsheko Kabasia
THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FESTIVAL. Sibongile Mngoma during "An African Celebration" of the 25 years of sponsorship of the National Arts Festival at the Monument in Grahamstown. The celebration featured several past and present winners of Standard Bank Young Artist award. Picture By : Tsheko Kabasia

SCANDAL star Sello Maake Ka-Ncube has joined accomplished composer Isak Roux in a jazz gospel choral orchestra production, Coming Home.

SCANDAL star Sello Maake Ka-Ncube has joined accomplished composer Isak Roux in a jazz gospel choral orchestra production, Coming Home.

Coming Home will only be staged twice in the Promusica Theatre in Florida Park on December 15 and 16 as part of Reconciliation Week.

Ka-Ncube, who will be the narrator of the show, will be joined by award-winning opera singer Sibongile Mngoma and tenor Tim Moloi.

Coming Home is a work for three solo singers, large mixed choir, jazz ensemble and string orchestra. It seeks to evoke themes found in the biblical parable of The Prodigal Son.

Kutloane Masote, the conductor of the show, explains the concept: "Structurally the work draws on elements of the classical oratorium and the more recent popular musicals genre. One of the most salient impacts of the African diaspora has been the development of the intercultural American musical style known simply as the "Negro Spiritual".

Masote adds that the vocal style has had a far reaching effect on the development of musical styles around the entire globe.

"Its influence is palpable in musical styles as diverse as those of Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Barbara Hendricks, Jessye Norman, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, among others."

Isicathamiya, as exemplified in the music of the legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo, is in itself a uniquely African form of spiritual.

Roux, the composer, says Coming Home will be interpreted in various indigenous languages of South Africa.

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