ATKV-Crescendo announces top crop of Afrikaans music finalists for the next round of mentoring

One of SA’s longest-standing development programmes aimed at equipping songwriters with expertise, ATKV-Crescendo, have selected some of our country’s most undiscovered musical talents to move forward to the next round of this year’s ATKV-Crescendo Mentor Programme.

This Programme has addressed the need to train and develop talented musicians since 2014. Participants must submit a song written by themselves. They are encouraged to write and sing in their own dialect ensuring a constant flow of new talent, songs, voices and sounds to the Afrikaans music industry.

Auditions were held countrywide, but digital submissions were also accepted. From hundreds of entries, twenty-two finalists were selected in collaboration with Expression Session to attend this year’s ATKV Mentor Programme from 23 to 27 March at House Theo Pauw, Paarl.

The week consisted of a series of hour-long sessions presented by experts such as Anna Davel, Melissa van der Spuy, Danie du Toit and Deon Meiring. In some of these sessions, participants had to write a new song in an hour and perform it afterwards. This was a build-up to the final task of the Programme: Performing one song at the closing concert!

“The Mentor Programme places a tremendous amount of focus on human development,” explains course leader, Robin-Dean Fourie. “Training is based on the core principles of character and integrity. We want to pass on knowledge and expertise in the disciplines of entrepreneurship and self-management to enable promising talent to grow within the music industry while being self-sustaining as well.”

These top-class mentors and industry specialists will continue working with the finalists even after the Mentor Programme. “We are dedicated to helping them hone their skills in pursuit of a successful music career in South Africa,” says Robin-Dean Fourie. “This is about so much more than only finding talent. We create opportunities for them to perform their own music while growing their stardom in a very competitive business.”

Twelve finalists were selected after a week of gruelling challenges. These musicians will attend a final workshop in Stellenbosch during the October school holidays. Members of the public will be able to attend the concert at the end of that week during a major ATKV-Crescendo production.

The finalists are:

  1. Chresville Adendorf, Worcester (24)
  2. Leigh-Muir Booysen, Worcester (23)
  3. Annika Boshoff, Cape Town (31)
  4. Marsha Bothma, Bellville (27)
  5. Suné Damons, Worcester (24)
  6. Athina Sue Chanté Jansen, Brackenfell (28)
  7. Alzanley Noome,  Centurion (23)
  8. Leandi Schmidt, Olifantsfontein, (28)
  9. MJ Scholz, Middelburg, Mpumalanga (24)
  10. Renée Van Niekerk, Somerset West (22)
  11. Selby Williams, Worcester (29)
  12. Aidam-John Zekoe, Worcester (24)

For more info about ATKV-Crescendo and its upcoming projects, visit the website:https://atkv.org.za/nuus/categories/atkv-crescendo   

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