NATIONAL Arts Council of Zimbabwe Harare provincial manager William Ndinde has challenged local promoters to start rolling capacity-building workshops aimed at developing and promoting professionalism among artistes.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
Ndinde was speaking to NewsDay on the sidelines of a financial literacy workshop held on Tuesday at Book Café in Harare, courtesy of a local artistes’ developmental and promotional company, Ngoma Nehosho.
“As NACZ and by extension as government, we are saying the arts sector is a creative sector therefore Ngoma Nehosho must be applauded for such a noble idea to organise an enlightening workshop that seeks to open minds of our local artistes to think outside the box and become entrepreneurs instead of waiting for live shows to get money,” Ndinde said.
“Our local promoters must also join hands in such initiatives to capacitate artistes so as to improve the way they conduct their businesses rather than organising live concerts that only benefit them, but they must help the artistes to grow.”
Ndinde said he was optimistic that such kind of workshops will go a long way in contributing towards professionalism among artistes and the arts sector.
South African-based music rights experts David Alexander and Kefiloe Molefe were the speakers at the workshop that was attended by several artistes from different genres, among them Hip Hop artiste Tehn Diamond, Cynthia Mare, Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Roki, Cindy Munyavi, Victor Kunonga, music promoter Benjamin Nyandoro and producer Mono Mkundu as they shared their experiences in the music industry on a regional and international level.
After the workshop, artistes commended Ngoma Nehosho for organising the workshop.
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Jazz singer and actress Katomeni said; “The workshop was informative and from the lecture it proved that in terms of structures our industry is far behind, but I hope as artistes we will help build and change the face of the sector, especially for the future generation.”
Another artiste Cynthia Mare said she was enlightened and grateful that the workshop provided her with another perspective to understand how to make money as an artiste through doing adverts rather than to just wait for live shows.
Mkundu said the workshop helped him understand more on issues of split sheets which are an important tool to track musical collaborations among songwriters, musicians, publishers and any other person or company that may be directly involved.
Nyandoro said; “The workshop was resourceful, especially presentations by David Alexander, learning from what and how our South Africa friends do well. The presentation on royalties showed that it was a topic that proved to be important to the artistes.
“We need to have more of these interactions as we grow both the talent and knowledge on the arts industry.”
Walter Wanyanya — the brains behind the workshop — said he was overwhelmed by the response from the artistes who attended the event.
“The workshop was an interactive platform whereby artistes showed a high level of understanding of issues that were discussed but some had little know-how to address the issues,” Wanyanya said.
He said Ngoma Nehosho is geared to put up programmes that will see artistes being equipped with useful knowledge in their music business.
