Al Jazeera English
JUNE HIGHLIGHTS 2009
New Programming from Every Angle and Every Side
WITNESS:
MUSICAL INVESTMENTS
16 year old Abel Selaocoe is from a poor township called Sebokeng near Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother is a domestic worker and many of his family members are unemployed.
A few years ago he started playing the cello, and quickly rose to be one of the country’s top young classical musicians, challenging stereotypes in an environment where such music is often still seen as a white “Western import” with no place in the indigenous black culture…. Musical Investments follows Abel as he travels to Cape Town to take part in the yearly week-long MIAGI youth orchestra event, where he will be performing Boccherini’s second cello concerto as soloist on the final night. The film follows Abel and other students from highly varied social and racial backgrounds as they come together under the baton of Turkish maestro Cem Mansur in the lead-up to the concert at Cape Town’s City Hall. This is an inspirational and uplifting story of hope, hard work, talent and achievement in a land freed from the yoke of institutionalized racism.
Airing on Tuesday 02nd June 08.30 & 19.00 GMT and Wednesday 03rd June 03.00 & 14.00 & 23.30GMT
