Vuma Levin, suggested the Mail & Guardian, “is destined to be one of South African Jazz’s greatest musicians”. Levin is a guitarist, composer and lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand and winner of this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz. After music studies in Pretoria he graduated with a Master’s degree cum laude from the Amsterdam Conservatorium and was a semi-finalist at the Montreux Socar International Jazz Guitar competition in Switzerland. His music is centred on post-apartheid South African identity and of his latest album, “Antique Spoons”, Levin explains that, “The sounds I used on the album are really a mix of many different influences – contemporary jazz, as well as contemporary South African jazz”. It is this complex mix of influences that he ambitiously harnesses in his Makhanda Standard Bank Young Artist performances, combining a string quartet from Amsterdam, a trio of Swiss instrumentalists, a Dutch jazz quartet, and a well-known Dutch arranger and conductor, all interspersed with his guitar playing, and carefully laid out in his complex compositions.



We are grateful to Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, the Swiss Arts Council and Fonds Podium Kunsten Performing Arts Fund NL for making this performance possible.
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Vuma Levin (guitar)
Bernard van Rossum (sax – NL)
Xavi Torres Vicente (piano – ES)
Marco Zenini (bass – IT)
Jeroen Batterink (drums – NL)
Matthias Spillman (trumpet – CH)
Andreas Tschopp (trombone – CH)
Reto Suhner (sax – CH)
Gustavo Cabrera (violin – NL)
Yanna Pelser (viola – NL)
George Dumitriu (viola – RO)
Pau Sola (cello – ES)
Tijn Wybenga (conductor – NL)
We are grateful to the Performing Arts Fund NL (Netherlands) and Pro Helvetia (Switzerland) for their support in
making this performance possible.