Newport Live Presents Mandla Mlangeni "Oratorio Of a Forgotten Youth"

Come join us as Newport Live presents Mandla Mlangeni from South Africa on Saturday, April 20th, 7:30 PM at the Casino Theater, 9 Freebody St., Newport, RI . Call Newport Live at (401)400-2774. Newport Live Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of South African Independence with Mandla Mlangeni, Standard Bank Jazz Award Winning Artist.

Mandla Mlangeni is a Johannesburg-based trumpeter, composer and bandleader. A superbly talented player, Manda is a member of the SAMA-nominated group Amandla Freedom Ensemble and has toured extensively as a member of the Cape Town Opera. Recently, his musical production Oratorio Of A Forgotten Youth was premiered by the Artscape Opera House. Newport Live will be presenting the U.S. premier of Mandla's "Oratorio Of a Forgotten Youth" with 20 musicians, jazz and indigenous, from South Africa, with the cooperation of the South African government and Lincoln Center Jazz, who will also be presenting workshops in cooperation with Newport Live.

Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth reimagines jazz in through the lens of poetry, classical music and the black consciousness legacy in South Africa. This initiative is inspired by Mandla Mlangeni’s Oratorio Of A Forgotten Youth, a seminal interdisciplinary and genre bending work where jazz, classical music, politics and poetry are intertwined. The Oratorio Of A Forgotten Youth has evolved throughout the years 2016-2021 and was defined by its numerous associations with artists, poets and various institutions. The 2021 and 2023 iteration have included poet Lesego Rampolokeng, The Brother Moves On, The Vivacious Sounds Choir, The Resonance String Quartet and visual/sand artist Tawanda Mu Afrika, with arrangements and compositions by Yonela Mnana and Mandla Mlangeni. Under Mlangeni’s direction, the echoes of 1976’s youth resonate in South Africa’s current political climate, juxtaposing choral rendition of the struggle while swinging through the perplexities of our present and future.

Mandla is also highly active with Tune Recreation committee, a group which he founded to teach music workshops and provide healing to disenfranchised communities. In 2020, Mandla received a OneBeat Accelerator grant for his project ‘Afrikan Freedom Principle’, an online platform for a wide community of musicians and arts practitioners to share insights on current developments in the industry, including a podcast, panel discussions, archives, and workshops on everything from music theory to marketing to performance to preservation.

Trumpet-player, composer and bandleader of exceptional originality and craft, Mandla Mlangeni has demonstrated his talent on many a local and international stage. He was recognised in 2019 as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year for Jazz, one of SA’s highest accolades.

Mlangeni leads various creative and critically acclaimed projects. The Tune Recreation Committee made their debut appearance at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and then had their album 'Voices of Our Vision' listed as on the New York Times’ Best Albums for 2017. The Amandla Freedom Ensemble has released two albums including the SAMA nominated ‘Bhekisizwe’, named after Mlangeni's activist and lawyer father who was assassinated by apartheid forces. Mlangeni also leads the Swiss-based Birdsong Ensemble, and has played or collaborated with legends such as David Murray (US), Evan Parker (UK), Feya Faku, Hugh Masekela and Shabaka Hutchings (UK).

Many of Mlangeni’s compositions are rooted deeply in a consciousness of social discourse, a sense of pride and a celebration of being black, being African. On stage though, Mlangeni has a vibrant energy, an infectious smile and an irrepressible sense of fun that has the audience with him from the first to the last note. His trumpet playing stretches from the wistful melancholia of rainy day jazz, through to foot tapping, hip-swinging tunes that evoke the best of South African jazz, and onto musical experimentations that add dashes of influence from Balkan and Electro to Free Jazz.

Host or Publisher Newport Live