The 23rd rendition of Artscape's Youth Jazz Series, a two-day celebration of young musical talent featuring soloists and school jazz bands on June 12 and 13.
This year marks the 23rd rendition of one of Artscape’s annual flagship projects, the Youth Jazz Series, to be presented over a two-day masterpiece showcase featuring the Youth Jazz soloists on Friday, June 12 and the School Jazz Bands on Saturday, June 13.
The latter were selected by Keith Tabisher and Hugo Smuts of the Western Cape Department of Education. This year’s project, directed by Head of Jazz Studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), Associate Professor, vocalist, and pianist Amanda Tiffin, encompassed Masterclass programmes in which the young musicians learnt from industry professionals.
The selected participants comprise 15 young musicians who were auditioned for the 2026 programme.
They are Connor Johnson(piano), Ethan Herman (drums), Eyo Nzazi (bass), Cole Krieling (guitar), Franco Von Wieligh (saxophone), Henco Bester (saxophone), Ryan Jacobs (bass), Sibabalwe Gobe-Gysman (vocals), Hlelo Zungu (vocals), Liam Petersen (drums), Mackenzie Hendricks (vocals), Michael de Goede (saxophone), Talicia Mariti (vocals), Zakhiel Davids (trumpet) and Kyle Damons (piano). The programme received a significantly higher number of applications (over 90%) than in 2025.
