The Lady Day Big Band (LDBB) is launching their Schools’ Outreach Project, a programme of video tutorials and live performances, this month.
The project is aimed at encouraging and inspiring women and girls to step into the musical domain and consider a career as instrumentalists.
Funded by the National Arts Council, the LDBB founders, Lana Crowster, Kelly Bell and Amanda Tiffin, designed the Schools’ Outreach Project to roll out to a number of schools in the Western Cape in March. When the pandemic hit South Africa, they decided to go digital.
They then developed a series of video tutorials and live performances which will be available to any school or music teacher during December.
The Lady Day Big Band is a 20-piece, professional all-women big band, which features a revolving roster of women musicians who are passionate about music and music education with many of their members being music teachers.
“I have always dreamed of starting a big band that would provide a platform for professional women musicians to showcase their talents in a safe space.
“This project is also about inspiring girls and young women who may have a passion for music. I want them to see us doing what we love, doing it well and in professional spaces, and see our successes as aspirational,” says Lana Crowster, founder of the Lady Day Big Band.
The tutorial videos feature Kelly Bell (trombone), Amanda Tiffin (conducting), Claire Rontsch (saxophone), Tracey Johannes and Annemie Nel (drums and electric bass), Hayley Joorst and Christin Rohl (trumpets) and Lana Crowster (vocals and band leader).
Music teachers can email Lana at contact@crowsnestproductions.info to receive free access to the tutorial and performance videos.
For more information, visit www.crowsnestproductions.info or find the Lady Day Big Band on social media.