Emirates Pursuit of Jazz Winner(s) Revealed!

We’ve been on a great music ride lately with jazz music being at the core of it. We were treated to fantastic live acts and performances throughout the Emirates Pursuit of Jazz music contest which gave some of the best local jazz talent a platform to do what they do best. This past Tuesday (4 December) saw five jazz artists perform at Katzy’s Rosebank for the opportunity of a lifetime, to be selected as the overall winner of the contest. The night included a surprise though, with not one but two musicians announced as the winners, namely Gally Ngoveni (bassist from Pretoria) and Siya Charles (trombonist from Johannesburg).

Both are not only now set to perform at New York’s world-famous Blue Note Jazz Club during the NYC Winter JazzFest in January 2019, but are also set for lucrative recording deals with Universal Music Group (UMG).

“Music creates connections and brings people together, as does Emirates. Both music and travel cross borders and unite individuals all over the world, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or culture. Siya and Gally‘s talents are exceptional, and we are thrilled to be taking both of them to New York, for a performance of a lifetime,” said Fouad Caunhye, Regional Manager, Emirates Southern Africa

Emirates Pursuit of Jazz, a collaboration between Emirates Airlines, UMG and Kaya FM, was announced back in August. Thatch Music began the national wide talent hunt to discover South Africa’s most talented jazz musician. Judges Brenda Sisane – broadcaster and social entrepreneur; Sipho Dlamini – Managing Director (MD) of UMG; and Nduduzo Makhathini – Winner of a SA Music Award (Best Jazz Album) and Standard Bank’s Young Artist Award (2015) further shortlisted the talent as the competition progressed.

“While we as a country are no strangers to music competitions, Emirates Pursuit of Jazz presented us with a rare opportunity to find talented musicians of a legacy genre that has shaped the music scene for over a century. We believe Gally and Siya are the best people to represent South Africa’s rich jazz scene both locally, and abroad and we look forward to working with the pair on the single.” added Lebo Kgothadi, Brands and Partnerships Manager, UMG

A fantastic experience which we are grateful to have been a part of with all our thanks going to Emirates Airlines. We can’t wait to see what both Gally and Siya do, one thing is for sure they are both fantastic musicians. We wish them all the best going forward.

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#Emirates Airlines #Emirates Pursuit of Jazz #Fouad Caunhye #Gally Ngoveni #Katzy’s Rosebank #Kaya FM #Lebo Kgothadi #Siya Charles #Universal Music Group

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Thabiso Moloi

With many, many years of PR, digital & influencer marketing work under his belt, Thabiso has worked on a great number of technology, business and consumer brands. In addition, he has become obsessed with most things under the sun including music, series, sports, movies etc which he now regularly writes about. You can find him on Twitter: @Thabz_14