[Media Coverage] University Symphony Orchestra Presents 2025 Tour Across South Africa

The University Symphony Orchestra (USO), led by its music director Kenneth Kiesler, professor of music and director of university orchestras, traveled to South Africa for two weeks in late May 2025. The USO gave the first of six concerts at the Aula on the campus of the University of Pretoria. In Soweto, a township of Johannesburg, the performance took place at Regina Mundi Church – known as the “people’s church” due to its role as a gathering place during the anti-apartheid movement. The ensemble performed at the University of Witwatersrand (known as Wits) in Johannesburg and, in Cape Town, at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre and the concert venue known as City Hall. Performing with the USO throughout the tour were three soloists: Daniel Washington, professor of voice at SMTD; Grammy-winning vocalist Karen Slack; and Goitsemang Lehobye (MM ’18, SM ’20, DMA ’24, voice). Lehobye is South African, born not far from Pretoria. The tour concluded in New York City with a performance at Carnegie Hall.

The USO performs in Carnegie Hall in New York. Photo: Mathew Pimental

In between performances in South Africa, the students visited historical venues, cultural sites, and natural areas, including a safari in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. They gathered at schools and community centers for musical and cultural exchanges, playing side-by-side with students from several universities and playing together with the youth orchestra at the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto. “We learned about the culture of South Africa, and our music-making soared as we played the same program so many times in so many places,” Kiesler shared. “All of that was important. But the greatest takeaway was how our music and music-making connected us with the audiences in a palpable, deeply moving, and unforgettable way.”

Prior to arriving in South Africa, the student musicians rehearsed a Xhosa song, “Bawo Thixo Somandla.” In South Africa, the students learned the traditional gestures and swaying movements to go along with it. At the end of each performance, the musicians set down their instruments, stood up, and sang. “Even before we began to sing,” Kiesler said, “there was a kind of excited anticipation as the audiences realized this was unusual and that something different was going to happen. When we started singing, standing still, the audiences were already cheering and ululating, and then, when we started the movements, the places erupted.” After the Soweto concert, the entire audience began singing back to the orchestra, dancing and celebrating in a joyous exchange.

Enjoy these links to media coverage and articles about the USO’s South Africa Tour:

• More Than Music: South Africa and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra (47-minute NPR documentary on the show 1A)
• American Cultural Diplomacy in South Africa Right Now, Courtesy of the University of Michigan (ArtsJournal)
• Cultural Diplomacy in South Africa Continued: the University of Michigan Concert Orchestra Goes to Soweto (ArtsJournal)
• University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra in Review (New York Concert Review Inc.)
• “A Service to the Nation” — The University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra Tours South Africa (ArtsJournal)
• Lessons in the Diplomatic Arts: Notes from a musical tour of South Africa (The American Scholar)
• Performing Internationally: Adventure Within the Unfamiliar (Performing Well Blog)

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