Arts & Entertainment
27
Masebe Music | Konkara: (un) hidden art hives
Website
Monthati Masebe is a multi-talented artist — a composer, pianist, actor and African indigenous music archivist. She also runs Masebe Music | Konkara: (un) hidden art hives. They started their career at an early age — learning to play Alicia Keys’ diary by ear when they was 10 and holding concerts in their bedroom where people would pay R10 to attend. Now, at the age of 27, Monthati composes music for operas, orchestras and films. “The music is most times centred on my work as an archivist. With hundreds of thousands of instruments in the African continent, I cement my sound around amplifying our underrepresented art forms and working with digital music tech to create virtual exhibition spaces,” they said. Monthati is also studying towards a PhD in composition at Duke University, North Carolina, in the US. They is a board member of the Indigenous African Music Project run by Southern African Music Rights Organisation and was one of 10 international composers to receive a fellowship with the Goethe-Institut and the Ensemble Recherche, a German classical music ensemble of nine soloists. Monthati’s music has been performed by music ensembles in Boston, Sweden, Tokyo, Berlin and Birmingham in the United Kingdom. “I’m driven to excel so that little weird non-binary queer black kids like me don’t feel out of place in a predominantly white classical music industry. I’m driven to excel and dispel the stigmas about people with mental disabilities like myself,” they said. Monthati’s interest goes beyond music to include South Africa having a green economy and our energy problems resolved with clean energy and skills developed for sustainable infrastructure.
- Bachelor of Music (honours in music composition, University of the Witwatersrand.
- Studying towards my PhD in composition at Duke University, North Carolina, in the US
- Board member of the Indigenous African Music Project run by Southern African Music Rights Organisation.
- One of 10 international composers to receive a fellowship with Goethe-Institut and the Ensemble Recherche, a German classical music ensemble of nine soloists.
- Fellow at Duke University.
- Her music has been performed by music ensembles in Boston, Sweden, Tokyo, Berlin, and Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
It’s definitely learning to play Alicia Keys’ diary by ear at the age of 10 and having home concerts in my bedroom where people would pay R10 to attend.
You have high levels of emotional intelligence. Your boundaries matter. You know soooo much more than this pessimistic world wants you to tap into. Whatever you think you deserve and desire. The great divine has even bigger plans ready for you once you surrender to the power of co-curation. Your purpose is valid and necessary, thank you for being relentless in the ways you love.
I would like it to be a green economy. We have the resources to be one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world and I wish to see more of our energy problems resolved with green energy and skills developed for sustainable infrastructure. I want our arts education to be more expansive and represent the human experience in inspirational ways. I want our media to tap into the power of Afrofuturism/ubuntufuturisms and build new worlds with our imagination — to stop perpetuating stale and unproductive stereotypes. I’d like South Africa to institutionalise ubungoma in a way that legitimises the wisdom that has carried our people for centuries. I’d like for there to be protection for initiation schools so as to weave out scams and tricksters and to illuminate ethical practices. This is a selfish wish but I would like for polyamorous marriage to be legalised and for society to embrace multi-love in romance as we already have with polygamy.