Back row: Mr. Motsumi Makhene; Ms. Notando Migogo; Prof. Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph; Mr. Jabulani "HHP" Tsambo; Mr. Neo Muyanga and Mr. Richard Nwamba: Front row. Mr. Andre le Roux; Mr. Leon Van Wyk; Dr. Sylvia Bruinders and Mr. Nicholas Motsatse 

Mr. Leon van Wyk, Chairman

Pianist, organist and choral singer, Leon van Wyk obtained the degree of BMus Hons (1987) in General Music from the University of the Witwatersrand. He   joined SAMRO in 1985, and, in the following years, held various posts in the company with regard to its function as administrator of copyright in musical works, served on several committees of SAMRO, and represented the company on the Supervisory Board of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, which is based in Paris. He was the non-voting Chairman of the Board of Adjudicators of the SAMRO SENA Overseas Scholarships 2011 for Singers. Van Wyk resigned in that year,   having been SAMRO’s General Manager: Rightsholder Services with special responsibility for International Affairs since 2009. He currently conducts personal business interests in property administration and management.    

Prof. Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph

Born in Pretoria, Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph studied piano with Adolph Hallis, Philip Levy and John Lill, among others. She obtained the BMus and MMus degrees with distinction, and, in 1979, tutored by Prof. Stefans Grové, she became the first woman in South Africato obtain the DMus degree for Composition. She also holds an honorary Doctorate in Education (2008). In 1974, she studied composition in Hamburg, Germanyunder the renowned composer, György Ligeti. In the following year, she was appointed lecturer at the School of Musicof the University of the Witwatersrand, where she has been Professor of Theory and Composition since 2001. She has frequently been guest composer at music festivals in Europe and the USA, as well as lecturer on her specialisations, music by women composers, and indigenous African music and its influence on trans-cultural music by South African composers. Zaidel-Rudolph has served as adjudicator for many composition competitions and piano festivals. She has also made a notable contribution to Jewish music in Johannesburg as pianist, musical director, composer and arranger. In 2004President Thabo Mbeki awarded Zaidel-Rudolph the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze “for her outstanding contribution as a composer, pianist and teacher in the development of music in South Africa and internationally”. She is a member of the Board of SAMRO.

Dr. Sylvia Bruinders

Sylvia Bruinders, political and cultural activist in the 1980s and early 1990s, obtained the Honours degree in Musicology at the University of Cape Town in 1995 where she had been introduced to the study of Ethnomusicology. On a Fulbright Scholarship to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA she obtained her Masters degree in 1999 on informal musical instruction in community structures in Cape Town. Bruinders obtained her Doctorate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois this year. Her primary interests are to investigate processes of cultural transmission within certain communities and to develop an understanding of the processes involved in maintaining distinct musical cultures in a diverse society. Bruinders is the recipient of the African Humanities Programme Postdoctoral Fellowship of the American Council of Learned Societies for which she is writing a monograph on the doctoral research she did on the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape. She currently teaches African and African diasporic musics at undergraduate level as well as musical ethnography and ethnomusicological theory and method at post-graduate level in the College of Music of the University of Cape Town.

Mr. Nick (Molefi Nicholas) Motsatse

Holder of a degree in Theology from the University of Fort Hare, Nick Motsatse has been CEO of SAMRO since 2006, having first served for a period on the Senior Management of the company as an Executive and Director of Marketing and related aspects. He has been involved in pioneering a number of South African music industry initiatives. Motsatse is one of the two Vice Chairmen of the Board of Directors of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, and is Chairman of its Business Intelligence Group which deals with future trends in copyright and related industries, as well as being a member of the Executive Committee of CISAC’s Africa Committee. He is immediate past Chairman of the National Arts Council (NAC). Motsatse’s passion is leadership, his   particular interest being in the post-“exile-island groomed” leadership of South Africa.

Mr. Andre le Roux 

Andre le Roux, arts administrator and cultural activist, is the Executive General Manager of the SAMRO Foundation. Starting with community work in the Cape Flats, he has studied arts administration in the USA, UK and the Netherlands, and has been in arts and culture administration at local, national and international level for some 20 years. He joined SAMRO in 2006 as Manager of the SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts, the company’s social investment and music education arm, now the SAMRO Foundation. He has also worked for the National Arts Council (NAC) and the Department of Arts and Culture, and has served on the Boards of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), the Arts and Culture Trust, the South African Coalition on Cultural Diversity and Moshito. He is co-owner of IKS Consulting & Promotions for the advancement of African artists.

Mr. Richard Nwamba

Trained at the Soweto College of Education as a teacher of English and History, Richard Nwamba is an award-winning playwright, musician, actor and broadcaster who has released a number of albums. He presented the radio show, The African Connection with Richard Nwamba. He is a regular contributor of articles on African music to such publications as Sawubona (the in-flight magazine of South African Airways), Islander (Air Mauritius’ magazine), and Songlines, the UK’s world music magazine. From time to time, he also moderates, facilitates, and gives lectures on African music at such institutions as Rhodes University, the University of Pretoria, the Goethe Institute, Moshito, and the Museum of Asian Civilisations in Singapore. He has also contributed material on African music to the BBC. He is fluent in Tsonga, English, French and Portuguese.

Mr. Neo Muyanga 

Born in Soweto into a long line of traditional composers and manufacturers of timbilas, Muyanga, musician and composer, studied the Italian madrigal tradition under Piero Poclen at the United World College of the Adriatic in Trieste. After graduating from the University of the Western Cape, he co-founded with Masauko Chipembere the acoustic guitar duo, blk sunshine, which has toured throughout southern Africa, in the United States and western Europe. Neo is a member of the Council of Artscape, Cape Town, and has composed music for, and toured with, the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company and South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company. He has seved as Artist-in-Residence in the School of Drama of the University of Cape Town. He also co-curates the Pan African Space Station (PASS), an archive of contemporary pan-African sound and art on the Internet.   

Ms. Nothando Migogo

Nothando Migogo is Managing Director of DALRO, the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation, (a subsidiary of SAMRO), having previously been its General Manager: Corporate and Legal Affairs. She holds the LlB and LlM degrees of the University of the Witwatersrand and has been a tax consultant and publisher, this last as Managing Editor (Business) of Fleet Street Publications. She contributed to the Afrikan Poet Society’s compilation CD.

Mr. Motsumi Makhene

Motsumi Makhene is an educator, and organisation development consultant, a composer, arranger, poet and lyricist, painter, producer, and an arts and culture policy analyst and activist. As a Further Education and Training (FET) policy analyst, he is the co-writer of policy report and the Road Map for the development of Gauteng Public FET colleges for the Specialist Council for FET. He is the Principal and Chief Accounting Officer of the Central Johannesburg College (CJC) and has been Chairman of various organisations, including the National Delphic Council of South Africa, the Funda Community College Board, and the Music Industry Development Trust. He is a consultant team member of the National Creative Industry Skills Academy for the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) and has designed a manual for the training of strategic planning facilitators in community education.

Mr. Jabulani (“HHP”) Tsambo 

Better known as Hip Hop Pantsula (“HHP”) or Jabba - as a performer of Motswako and rap in a variety of languages, although primarily Setswana, isiZulu and Sesotho - Jabulani Tsambo has performed across Africa, as well as in Europe and the USA. He is also a lyricist and actor. He was born in Mmabatho, capital of North West Province. In 2007, together with his professional dance partner, Hayley Bennett, he won the third season of the reality dance-show, Strictly come dancing. In 2008, Tsambo won Best Male Solo Artist and Best Rap Album in the 14^th annual SAMA (South African Music Awards). He was one of the featured celebrities in the South African version of the documentary series, Who do you think you are? In the following year, he hosted the 13-episode, The Respect Show with HHP, in which he paid tribute to people who, in a variety of fields, have shaped South Africa’s landscape.