College Marimba Festival 2017

May 17, 2017 | Campus
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Combined marimba bands

On the evening of 16 May 2017 St Stithians College hosted its second College Marimba Festival. The school welcomed over 100 marimba players from nine schools to participate in an evening celebrating the African instrument. Of the nine participating schools, one school came from as far afield as Botswana to be part of the festival.

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The Girls' College marimba band

Each participating school's marimba group performed a set of their choosing: some choosing to play more recent popular songs like Pluto by Beatenberg and Happy by Pharell Williams while others opted for more classic popular songs like the Click Song by Miriam Makeba and You Rock My World by Michael Jackson.

The night began with the whole group of over 100 marimba players performing Ben E. King's Stand By Me. The programme then allowed each school to showcase their marimba talents with their chosen set. The whole group reconnected at the end of the night for another combined item, this time an item they call "Track 12".

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The Boys' College marimba band

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The various music directors from the participating schools

This is the second College Marimba Festival: the first being hosted last year also in Mears Hall. The festival was organised by our Director of Marimbas, Mr Michael Sibanda. "This is the second College Marimba Festival having hosted 12 preparatory marimba festivals since 2005," says Sibanda.

Says Mr Michael Sibanda, Campus Director of Marimbas at St Stithians College: "The aim of this marimba festival is to bring together school marimba bands to perform together and for each other with no sense of competition. From this festival the different groups bring a wide variety of repertoire to share with each other." He adds: "Performance opportunities for school marimba bands are limited so the festival provides an excellent performance platform."

"My highlight of the festivals are the combined items where all the participants perform together. This gives a sense of unity, cooperation and total enjoyment. All the participants leave the festival proud of their achievement and contribution to the festival," he concludes.

The participating schools, in alphabetical order, are as follows:

  • Cornwall Hill College, Pretoria, under the direction of Wian Joubert
  • Dainfern College, Johanesburg, under the direction of Mark Pettitt
  • Holy Rosary School, Johannesburg, under the direction of Mpumi Modingoane
  • Kingsmead College, Johannesburg, under the direction of Wian Joubert
  • Lebone II – College of the Royal Bafokeng, Phokeng (North West), under the direction of Mutubatsi Tshuma
  • Maru-a-Pula School, Gaborone (Botswana) under the direction of Laone Thekiso
  • Redhill School, Johannesburg, under the direction of Locx Mmileng
  • St Stithians Boys' College, Johannesburg, under the direction of Michael Sibanda
  • St Stithians Girls' College, Johannesburg, under the direction of Michael Sibanda

Below is a gallery of images with photos of the marimba bands.