SOME of South Africa’s top female musicians have got together to present a Women’s Day charity concert in Cape Town that now hangs in the balance after a major sponsor pulled out.

The line-up for the Cape Town Divas Unite concert includes Freshlyground lead singer Zolani Mahola, top South African sopranos Magdalene Minnaar and Zanne Stapelberg, theatre’s Kim Kallie and Judy Page, award-winning instrumental pop group, Sterling EQ and up-and-coming opera singer Noluvuyiso Mpofu. The concert was to raise fund for Project Flamingo, which funds timeous surgery for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients at Groote Schuur Hospital. It pays for theatre time and nursing staff.

"Their main sponsor pulled out. It’s so horrific," Ms Mahola told Business Day on Wednesday morning. In an attempt to make up the missing R120,000 the organisers have applied for crowdfunding via indiegogo.com.

It was after Opulent Living’s successful Valentine’s Under the Stars concert in the Castle of Good Hope that Ms Minnaar told its organiser Barbara Lenard of her idea to "get all my opera singer friends together in a concert for hardcore charity".

"The Valentine’s night concert was mindblowing," says Ms Lenard, who runs events and publication company Opulent Living. "Then Magdalene Minnaar said why don’t we do something similar for Women’s Day and I ran with it."

It was Ms Lenard who took Ms Minnaar’s opera idea and extended it. "I wanted every kind of genre, and every kind of person," she says.

The "divas" — if the concert goes ahead — will be accompanied by an all-female Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, and a unique performance by Sans Souci Girls High School representing Sing the Change. This is an initiative that uses songwriting and performance to empower youth.

"Mostly we teach songwriting skills," says Sing the Change founder-director Laura Santoni. "A song can address different issues, it gives youth a voice — you have to connect to certain things and be authentic to write a song." Once a song is written, those who collaborated in its writing work with professionals in what Ms Santoni calls "an intergenerational performance".

Sing the Change is a new organisation, having been established last year, but has secured a recording contract for a debut album. A pilot project song, Hear Our Minds, is to be performed at the August 8 concert.

"It’s so hard to put a public event together that covers its own costs," says Sterling EQ’s Carina Bruwer. The group comprises Ms Bruwer, who plays electric flute, electric violinist Luca Hart and electric cellist Ariella Caira.

"I have great admiration for them (Opulent Living), they have put in a lot of time and risk," she says.

"I think it’s an awesome line-up of women," says Ms Mahola. "It’s such an honour to be performing alongside them all. I think the organisers were wanting to bring people together, so that’s why that line-up."

Sue Blaine

 Via www.bdlive.co.za