By Nangamso Mabindla
26 October 2004

THE Eastern Cape government, seeing an increasing number of talented musicians seeking opportunities elsewhere, has decided to try to solve the province's brain drain.

The province's department of sport and recreation, arts and culture joined forces with the University of Fort Hare and Buffalo City to nurture musical talent in the province.

The partners are to open an audio-visual centre in East London that will offer training opportunities for sound engineers, producers, and of course, musicians and songwriters.

Once the centre has identified talented musicians, the individuals and groups will receive mentoring and have their albums professionally produced.

All types of music will be catered for, from jazz and gospel to indigenous music and kwaito. And the musicians can apply to the centre for further music and life skills training.

Project officer Mlungisi Mayedwa said the main aim of the audio-visual centre was to create jobs and give local talent an opportunity to showcase their talent.

An exciting option is the Bachelor's Degree in Music Production and Technology that will be offered by the centre. A degree in jazz is also on the cards.

"We want to produce educated artists who have qualifications in music," said Mayedwa. "We all know that because they're not educated, some musicians are exploited by some recording companies."

Mayedwa is excited by the fact that the artists will no longer need to move to Johannesburg to release their albums. "These will be done here at the centre - the province will have its own artists writing and producing songs."

Local artists like jazz legend Stompie Mavi, from Queenstown, and gospel sensation Kholeka have left the province to pursue their careers in Johannesburg.

"We have most of our local artists mesmerising Joburg crowds instead of their own people down here in the Eastern Cape," Mayedwa added

Although the centre will be officially opened on Thursday, 28 October, 15 youngsters began their training on Monday, 25 October in audio engineering, computer graphics and video editing.