The hall is open at four
A community music school in the church hall on Mavuso Street, Kwazakhele, Gqeberha. Brass, marimba, recorder and theory every weekday afternoon since 1994. The instruments belong to the hall, so no child has to own one.
Come to a Thursday rehearsalWhat happens in this hall
Four things, and they have not changed much since Mrs Sokhela first unlocked the door.
Who comes
Learners from Kwazakhele, New Brighton and Zwide, aged eight to nineteen. Some walk, some come on the 11 taxi. About forty on a normal Thursday, and closer to seventy in the week before an eisteddfod.
When
Weekday afternoons from 16h00, Saturday mornings for one-to-one lessons, and the last Sunday of the month when the band plays for whoever walks in off the street.
What it costs
Nothing. Families who can manage it put R20 a term in the register tin for reeds and valve oil. Nobody has ever been asked twice, and nobody has ever been sent home over it.
What the band has won
Eastern Cape Schools Eisteddfod marimba section, 2019 and 2023. Two golds and a silver at the Nelson Mandela Bay Music Festival. A trophy cabinet with a door that no longer closes.
What we are raising for
The hall costs R318 000 a year to run. R124 600 is in, from the December concert takings and one three-year grant. R193 400 is still short, and it breaks down into six things.
R38 000
Repair bench. Re-padding six clarinets, valve work on the two cornets, and a full set of kiaat keys for the big marimba. Vuyani does the work for nothing; we buy the parts.
R46 000
Transport. A 22-seater and a trailer to get the band to Makhanda, East London and town four times a year. Last year two learners missed a final because the bakkie only took six.
R54 000
Saturday tutor hours. Two tutors, three hours, thirty-six Saturdays. They do it unpaid at the moment, and we would like to stop asking them to.
R21 600
Electricity. R1 800 a month to the municipality for the lights, the urn, and the two bar heaters that make a winter rehearsal possible at all.
R14 400
Insurance on forty-seven instruments. The premium went up after the break-in at the school across the road, and it is not a thing we can let lapse.
R19 000
A proper lockup. A steel cabinet bolted through the storeroom floor and burglar bars on the kitchen window. Right now the tubas sleep under a tarpaulin.
612
Learners through this hall since 1994. We know the number because the register book has never once been thrown away.
31 years
Thirty-one full school years out of the same hall. Two weeks lost in 2020, and not a single term missed otherwise.
47
Instruments on the register. Thirty-one of them are older than the child currently holding them.
9
Former learners now earning a living from music — the Bay Philharmonic, two church music directors, a wedding band in East London.
Three people who were here on Thursday
My daughter walked in at nine years old because her friend was going. She is fifteen now, she plays second trombone, and I have watched her learn to stand in front of a room without shrinking. I did not pay a cent for that. I bring a pot of samp on concert nights because it is the only thing I have to give back.
I learned to read music in this hall off a photocopied sheet, sitting on a plastic chair. I do it for a living in a pit in Cape Town now, and the theory that got drilled into us on Friday afternoons is the only reason my first audition was not a disaster.
I came to teach for one Saturday in 2018 as a favour and I have not managed to leave. Twenty minutes a child, six children a morning. You can hear the difference inside a month, which is not something my day job has ever given me.
The week
Doors at four, and nobody is turned away for not owning an instrument.
- Monday · 16h00–18h00 · Beginners. Recorder and note reading for anyone from Grade 3 to Grade 6. No instrument needed — we hand them out at the door and take them back at six.
- Tuesday · 16h00–18h00 · Marimba. Two teams, senior and junior, and the junior team is currently the louder of the two by a long way.
- Wednesday · 16h00–17h30 · Brass. Cornet, trombone, euphonium. Lips only last about ninety minutes, which is the whole reason this one finishes early.
- Thursday · 16h00–19h00 · Full rehearsal. Everybody in the hall at once. This is the one to come and watch — sit at the back, nobody will mind and nobody will ask you for anything.
- Friday · 15h30–17h00 · Theory and homework. Mrs Sokhela's room off the kitchen. UNISA Grade 1 to Grade 5 theory, and the quiet table for whoever needs to finish school work.
- Saturday morning · 09h00–12h00 · One-to-one lessons, booked on the board by the door. Twenty minutes each, first names only, first come.
- Saturday afternoon · 13h00–15h00 · Repair bench. Bring something that is not working and sit with Vuyani while he fixes it. Most people learn more here than in a lesson.
- Sunday · Closed, except the last Sunday of the month · 14h00 · The band plays in the hall for whoever walks in. Free, and there is no collection plate.
Get involved
The hall is at 14 Mavuso Street, Kwazakhele, Gqeberha. Mrs Sokhela answers 041 462 7118 after two on weekdays. If it is easier, fill this in and someone will phone you back.
Bandroom
Community music school · Kwazakhele, Gqeberha · founded 1994 · NPO 048-217