Cultivating a love for brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones is the mission of Commander Mike Oldham, former director of the SA Navy Band.
“One of the things we do is to encourage girls to play brass because in the earlier years girls always played the flute or clarinet or they were not in the band at all.”
Oldham, who has been a professional musician all of his life, has been teaching Grade 3 and 4 learners from Ocean View how to play brass instruments.
“I’ve been a professional musician all my life, I was born in England and was there for 30 years.
“When I was 20, I was an amateur trumpeter. I studied at Trinity University as a music teacher and I’ve been playing all my life. I also played at the navy band and then got the job as the director of music at the SA Navy.
“The navy has the outreach programmes to teach instruments.”
He added that not many women played trumpets and trombones.
Referring to a nine-year-old, one of the youngest female trumpeters in the Izivungu Brass Band, Oldham said she was very keen to learn.
“Jatum Jacobs is probably the youngest female trumpeter ever to have performed in the Southern suburbs and probably throughout Cape Town and beyond, being only nine-years-old, a Grade 3 pupil at Kleinberg Primary School in Ocean View.
“And she is very keen. In these areas they don’t have instruments and they don’t have teachers.
“She took part in a concert last week, in front of several hundred high and primary school members, as part of the Izivungu Brass Band and is in the teaching programme which started in 1996 and which has produced many female musicians.”
He added that the successful teaching programme has seen post matric girls perform with the band on trumpet, having taken part in concerts around Cape Town, at the Knysna Festival and at the Musikschau Der Nationen in Germany.
“One female graduate of the Band, Tammy Ann Laguma, gained a place at UCT, specialising on trombone which is a larger version of the trumpet.”
Many similar bands feature female members performing mostly on flutes or clarinets, but Oldham says he has always tried to encourage girls to branch out to try other musical instruments including the brass, percussion and drum kit.
Oldham, whose own career included being a member of the Grenadier Guards Band in London and the original SA Navy Band, neither of whom had female members until fairly recently.
“The teaching programme in Ocean View has been there since 1996, we also start with the Grade 3 classes and give them an introduction to musical instruments.
“There are probably over 100 learners.
“Over the years I’ve been encouraging girls to play the trumpet and trombone.
“You will see their trumpets are blue, red and yellow and it is imported from England. Some of the best trumpeters around the world are females and 30 years ago you did not have that.”
