Outreach – SongRoots

Community

South African Choral Music w/Bongani Magatyana

Village Harmony Choir Festival

March 27th 2021 - Cape Town, South Africa

In recent years South Africa's choral scene has increasingly been dominated by choral competitions prioritizing the performance of the music from the western classical cannon. Preparing for round after round of competitions leaves little time or incentive for black South African choirs to perform their own traditional choral music for the local community or to create new folk compositions in the old style.

This means that a lot of young black South Africans are now missing out on exposure to the rich repertoire that is so loved in South Africa and around the world.

You can promote the preservation of this wonderful genre.

Village Harmony and SongRoots have pledged to support Cape Town musician Bongani Magatyana as he organizes his second "Village Harmony Choir Festival" to be held in Cape Town on March 27th 2021. Our goal is to raise $10,000 CAD to fully fund this year's festival. We need help to get to this amount - any amount that you can donate will help tremendously!

DONATIONS - There are several ways to donate. To donate by Etransfer in CAD- you can send money to SongRoots through karla@songroots.ca. If you wish you to pay by cash or cheque - send me an email and I will send further instructions.

To donate online with PayPal or credit card- go HERE

**Donations are in USD as funds are going through the US-based organization - Village Harmony!

An internationally-acclaimed director-composer, Bongani has been teaching throughout Europe and North America (through Village Harmony) since 2012. Bongani is dedicated to enriching the musical communities in Cape Town where he lives. He is passionate about his work with local youth choirs and is generously mentoring composers- helping them to draw on South Africa's rich musical traditions.

The festival, which is intended to be annual, will provide an essential new venue outside of the pervasive competition choir scene and will offer financial incentives for black South African composers to write new "traditional" songs for choirs.

Eight Cape Town high school, university and church choirs have been invited to participate. Each ensemble will prepare a set of older folk songs and will be given funds to commission new songs composed in the traditional choral folk style, which they will also perform at the festival. The choristers will receive free transportation to and from the festival and free meals, and the choir organizations will receive honorariums for their participation.

The festival is intended be a community event, where families with children will be able to attend to learn and celebrate their choral tradition. Watch this video (made by Tikko Freilich) to learn more about the 1st Cape Town Festival!

Join us as we support Bongani in this inspirational endeavor.

To donate by Etransfer in CAD- you can send money to SongRoots through karla@songroots.ca. If you wish you to pay by cash or cheque - send me an email and I will send further instructions.

To donate go HERE

Environmental

Carbon Neutral

In 2021, SongRoots took the plunge to become a Carbon Neutral organization. We undertook a large Carbon Audit of our camps, choirs and trips and calculated our carbon footprint. Once we had that number, we offset all of that carbon through an organization called Nori that removes carbon through regenerative agriculture. On top of that, SongRoots still plants 10 trees and donates to rainforest protection for every person that participates in any SongRoots activities!

Planting Trees

SongRoots is thrilled to partner up with Eden Reforestation Projects. 10 trees will be planted for every person that signs up for a workshop, Summer Camp, any trip and for all singers in HMS, RnR, ISC and EarthSounds. For more information about Eden Reforestation check out their website and watch some of their videos!

Rainforest Protection

One acre of rainforest is protected for every person that signs up for a workshop, Summer Camp, any trip and for all singers in HMS, RnR, ISC and EarthSounds. This is done through the wonderful Rainforest Trust - to learn more about it, check out their website!

2019 Year in Review

This was a huge year for SongRoots outreach! We managed to surpass our goals and are looking forward to 2020 and what we can accomplish together then.

-2100 acres of Rainforest protected - all of these donations were at least doubled, some were quadrupled - so we actually managed to protect of 4200 acres of rainforest - in Peru, Philippines, Kenya, Ivory Coast and Nepal

-14575 trees were planted - through Eden Reforestation - planting native tree species in Madagascar, Haiti, Kenya and Indonesia

-$413 towards solar projects throughout the world.

-Also some money donated to - Seagrass Restoration, Orca Conservancy, Ancient Forest Alliance, Wilderness Committee and Kiva Loans.

Here's to an even bigger impact in 2020!

Social

Kiva Loans

SongRoots has made 4 loans through Kiva. This is a wonderful organization where you can make micro-loans to support people around the world who are creating opportunities for themselves and their communities. SongRoots focuses it's loans on projects that are also eco-friendly such as renewable energy and sustainable agriculture practices.