2007 Brass Festival Brings Unity Together in Moravian Brass Heaven
It began in Winston Salem, North Carolina, June, 2003, when five South African Moravian church musicians participated in the Moravian Music Festival. Those of us who played in the trombone choir and the concert band were told of an upcoming unity brass festival in honor of the 550th anniversary of the Moravian denomination. The festival would be held in South Africa during September or October, 2007.
Then, at the 2004 Moravian Trombone and Brass Festival (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) and the 2006 Moravian Music Festival (Columbus, Ohio), more South African Moravians came to participate. Thus, the journey to South Africa for 11 U.S. Moravian musicians, along with family members, was realized in September, 2007. Peggy Jamieson traveled the farthest with three instruments, purchased by the Morongo congregation, to be left for use by one of the congregations in South Africa.
We arrived in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, at various times from September 3-5. Allen Frank, an awesome tubist, was our United States conductor, and our United States Moravian band included: Richard Scranton (trumpeter virtuoso), Columbus, Ohio; Peggy Jamieson, Morongo Mission, California; Jan Stein, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Bart Collins and Ray Gatland, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Don Kemmerer, Ron Raymond, Nancy Beitel-Vessels, Mary Elen Kollman, and David Schattschneider from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In Port Elizabeth, we practiced in the morning and toured in the afternoon. Port Elizabeth Moravians treated us to awesome food, music, and sight-seeing at two nature reserves. At Kragga Kamma Game Park, several of our group met a famous South African movie star who purred very loudly, when scratched behind his ear. If you enjoyed the movie, Duma, then you will understand the movie star is a cheetah.
We toured Shiloh, Clarkson, Thornham, Elim, and Genadendal, where we performed brass selections during services. Shiloh was a Cosa congregation, and the other congregations visited were Afrikaan/English-speaking congregations. Elim, a closed Moravian community, has a home for disabled, autistic children and is known for their roof thatching. Genadendal makes Koi pottery and weaves scarves and sweaters and soon will be starting a vineyard. Most of the rural Moravian congregations ran their own schools and tried to operate businesses to combat the high unemployment in South Africa.
After seeing whales off the coast of South Africa, on September 13, we arrived in Cape Town, where we gathered for the Unity Brass Festival, held at the Good Hope Center. Approximately 400 to 500 brass players were in attendance. We practiced and performed 30 tunes, from classical sacred to Bawo, a favorite traditional South African tune. Don and Ron estimated over 6,000 Moravians in attendance for our performance on Sunday, September 16. For someone who grew up in rural Ohio (Tuscarawas County), it was unbelievable to be in such a gathering of Moravians. It felt like a multitude.
It is hard to explain how extraordinary southern South Africa is. Yes, we saw a lot of poverty, but we also saw a lot of beauty and initiatives to combat the poverty. Our hosts from Port Elizabeth, Shiloh, Thornham, Elim, Genadendal, and Cape Town were most gracious, and they went out of their way to make sure our visit to South Africa would never be forgotten. Brai barbeque to elephants to dasis to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, beauty, hospitality, and Christian fellowship was more than abundant.
A tune, “Brass in Heaven,” composed by Hilton Smith in memory of the eight South African brass players who died from a traffic accident in 2003, describes the Unity brass festival service — Moravian Brass in Heaven.
