South African violinist Neo Motsatse will headline a tribute concert in honour of late composer and singer Dorothy Masuka on what would have been her 87th birthday.
The tribute concert, titled Seasons: Dorothy Masuka’s Songbook in the Style of Vivaldi, is a musical production weaving Masuka’s prolific work with that of a well-known Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi’s Seasons.
The performance will be interspersed with extra-musical narrative expanding on Vivaldi’s accompanying sonnets to poetically incorporate aspects of Masuka’s own musical journey.
Speaking about the production, Motsatse said she is excited and honoured to be able to pay tribute to two of the most prolific and iconic composers of their times, Mam Dorothy Masuka and Antonio Vivaldi.
“As a classically trained South African musician, it is always my attempt to bring both elements in my music classical training plus being South African. In this production, we epitomise this duality, and the synthesis is something special,” she said.
The concert will bring together 16 musicians representing a fusion of both the classical music and the afro-soul genres.
Legendary music arranger, composer, and producer JB Arthur said the arrangements and some of the new compositional elements that have been created by him will bring different eras, genres, styles, cultures and continents.
“It does not often get more challenging than this, but we did it,” said Arthur.
The tribute concert will take place at the Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg on September 3.
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