|
AN American couple involved in the music industry in New York, who started teaching music in Kurland outside Plettenberg Bay, have extended their programme to Grade 4 and 5 pupils at Phakamisani Primary School in KwaNokuthula.
Jim Tooher, who owns a music store on Long Island, and his wife, Barbara Aragon, a retired nurse, first travelled to Plett in 2005 to do missionary work.
On their first return trip to Plett in 2006, Tooher brought with him six violins and a recorder, and by the end of two weeks they had 13 children able to play a tune.
The Kurland project is now self- sufficient and four of the pupils are also taking formal lessons at the Plettenberg Bay Music Academy.
At Phakamisani, the couple have been teaching music theory since last week, and handed out recorders to the first group of students this week
“We have four teachers working with us and we’ve given them each a recorder as well as an instruction book. Soon the children will be able to play chords and duets,” Aragon said. The school also planned to include music instruction in next year’s arts and culture curriculum.
The couple start the ball rolling with three weeks of intense instruction and then hand the project over to residents.
They return to the US on November 17 and hope to be back in South Africa by the end of February. They have set up a non-profit organisation, Music Without Borders, for their fund-raising efforts.
|