Onebeat 2014
In 2014 I was selected as a fellow for a US State Department program, OneBeat.
OneBeat is a music exchange and incubator for music-based social entrepreneurship, where innovative musicians from around the world launch collaborative projects designed to make a positive impact on local and global communities. An initiative of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and produced by Found Sound Nation, OneBeat is cultivating a groundbreaking international network of leading artistic, technological, and social innovators in music.
Over the course of four weeks I, alongside 23 other musicians from around the world, wrote music, developed and conducted workshops and community outreach, and gave performances.
At OneBeat I met people from all over the world, from different countries, with different musical tastes, different cultural backgrounds and different religions – but all with one common belief, that of the power of music as a connecting force! This is something that we as musicians have all felt and witnessed across stages all over the world. During OneBeat we shared music, we spoke about culture, religion and politics over our communal dinner table and we formed an undeniable lifelong bond that will be with us in one form or another for the rest of our lives. I went back to South Africa feeling completely invigorated and renewed.