By Walter Wanyanya
Ngoma Nehosho is proud to kick off the first of many artist development workshops. Ngoma Nehosho is geared to not only to put up shows and events that will see artists and their audiences enjoy the very best possible in entertainment but to also make sure the artists gain valuable knowledge and guidance from the best teachers in the music business .The entertainment industry is a very big contributor to the economy in many countries and Zimbabwe is no different. Many countries have developed a very vibrant calendar in what many would call “Entertainment Tourism” eg the Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa ,the Bayimba Festival in Uganda we already have Hifa and the Victoria Falls Carnival or our own. As stake holders in the arts and entertainment sector we have seen it fit make sure that our artist are prepared to international standards in their readiness to play their part as we hope to see many more events and festivals in Zimbabwe that will attract visitors from the region and abroad to Zimbabwe.
We had meetings with National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, the Book Cafe and we decided to partner with them and invite publishing,copyrighting,music rights experts from South Africa to come and conduct workshops manyvery important aspects of their day to day music business activities. Many of our artist have no or little knowledge
on how income can be realised from many areas which they sometimes overlook. The National Arts Council has thrown its weight in support for this workshop and many others to follow.
On Tuesday we will have Mr David Alexander and his colleague Kefiloe Molefe from Sheer Publishing in South Africa come to Zimbabwe and conduct this very first workshop. They will bring with them many years of experience in the music industry on a regional and International level. We have also invited our bankers from CABS Bank represented by Shaylet Ngubo to come and give a brief talk on financial matters that will help our artists.
Here is a brief wright up on David Alexander : A brief CV – David Alexander
David Alexander is the Founder, Owner and Managing Director of Sheer Publishing (Pty) Ltd, the fastest growing independent music publishing company in Africa. Sheer Publishing represents African songs and songwriters for the world. Amongst their clients are; Zahara, Mandoza, Eric Wainaina, Chris Chameleon, Suzanna Owiyo, D-Tone and Ntando. Sheer Publishing also represents international Publishers in Africa – some of their clients are Kobalt Music (US and Europe), Mushroom Music (Australia), Mute Song (UK), World Circuit (UK), Budde Music Inc (US), Freibank Music (Germany) and Saragema Music (India) and very own Victor Kunonga (Zimbabwe)
David founded Sheer Publishing back in 1996 to exploit a gap in the local Jazz scene. Today Sheer Publishing has a vast catalogue rich with diverse South African, African and International Chart music ideal for licensing purposes. Sheer Publishing offers the ultimate one stop solution for all deals and has music placements on movies such as District 9 and the Oscar winning Tsotsi and the Academy Award nominated Searching for Sugarman. Sheer Publishing has placed music on television shows such as Private Practice, Jacob’s Cross and Big Brother and has been instrumental in successful commercials such as Castle Light, Vodacom, MTN, Makro, Cadbury’s PS, Wimpy, Engen and Ackermans just to name a few.
Sheer Publishing is very active on the African Continent and David has travelled to many sub-Saharan countries in search of new clients. David has given papers and served on panels at music industry conferences such as African IP Forum (Tanzania), Salaam Music Expo (Senegal), Womex, Kenya Music Week (Kenya), NIMEX- the Nigerian International Music Expo (Nigeria), Porto Musicale (The Brazilian Music Exhibition) and the Wami Conference (Western Australian Music Industry) as well as at Moshito, Music Exchange, KZN Music Imbizo in South Africa. David has also participated as a Mentor at Womex and Nimex.
David has presented master classes on Music Business and Music Publishing at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Kwa-Zulu Natal and has given Guest lectures at the Academy of Sound Engineering and many other tertiary institutions.
David has consulted to the South African Department of Arts and Culture, the Department of Trade and Industry and some of the Regional Government Departments. The paper that he co-authored for the South African Music Export Council (SAMEX) “South African Music – an Export Strategy” was quoted at the European Parliament in 2011.
David serves as the Chairman of the Music Publishers Association of South Africa, which is the body that represents the music publishers in South Africa. David is on the Board of CAPASSO (Composers and Publishers Association) which is the mechanical collection society in South Africa and has agreements with the recording industry, broadcasters as well as internet and mobile operators.
David is a member of Bureau Export Music Africaine (BEMA) The African Music Export Council, The Institute of Directors (IOD) in South Africa and Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO Network)
David has a Bachelor of Social Science degree from the University of Cape Town, a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Thames Valley University and has completed various World intellectual Property Organisation courses on Copyright and Internet aspects of Copyright and Trademarks.
After the workshop David will have meetings with Artists, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and Zimura. The series of these workshops will be called the Ngoma Nehosh Artist Round Table “ART” .
We have many more lined up for the year as part of our artist development program and we hope that many of our artists who need guidance in the many other areas of their work will benefit immensely and all these workshops will be free or charge.
