Cape Town Orchestra and Opera release silent album

South Africa’s Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) and Cape Town Opera (CTO) have released a new album featuring silent versions of some of their greatest works. The album is titled Cwaka. The Silence. ‘Cwaka’ (pronounced ts-wah-kah) is the is Xhosa word for silence.

The album release comes after a significant earnings’ loss for the two organisations, as the Covid pandemic had forced them, over the last 18 months, to either stop live performances or to perform to extremely limited audiences.

Nicholas Ackerman, director of the Duet Endowment Trust that helps fund the CTO and CPO, discussed the project: ‘When we embarked on it, it was a direct response to the devastating effect of the pandemic on our orchestra and opera company. As we now approach the launch date, we see just how much the arts are under threat around the world; whether it’s COVID here in Cape Town, or the Afghan Women’s Orchestra being oppressed by the Taliban, or visual artists like Ai Wei Wei who has recently spoken about being exiled and censored; or even the cultural funding being quietly eroded away in places such as the UK.’

Ackerman adds that he hopes the album will be ‘a rallying cry for the artists around the world being silenced.’ The funds raised will help support the work done by both CPO and CTO both on stage and in the community, as well as supporting the arts across South Africa as a whole.

People can listen to the album now on Spotify, and via the campaign website, where they can also find out more about the initiative.