Source: U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa |

Invitation to Signing Ceremony: Chargé d’Affaires Jessye Lapenn to Present Grant to the Southern African Music Rights Organization for Preservation of Indigenous Music

Media houses are invited to arrive at The Orbit at 16:00 for 16:30 on November 1

PRETORIA, South Africa, October 26, 2017/APO Group/ --

The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria is pleased to invite members of the media to The Orbit Jazz Club and Bistro, in Braamfontein, on Wednesday, November 1. Southern African Music Rights Organization (SAMRO) Foundation Managing Director André Le Roux and U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jessye Lapenn will co-host a signing ceremony commemorating the launch of an Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant totaling $88,179. The SAMRO Foundation was selected to receive the grant following a worldwide competition for funds provided by American Ambassadors in more than 100 countries to support the preservation of cultural sites, cultural objects, and forms of traditional cultural expression.

The SAMRO Foundation will use the grant to complement the work of SAMRO Music Archive’s I AM project, which will focus on transcribing and documenting indigenous southern African music for purposes of research, performance, conservation, preservation and promotion of southern Africa’s rich musical heritage. Transcription will preserve compositions at risk of being lost and/or forgotten, and ensure indigenous musical works are available to future musicians and scholars.

André Le Roux, Managing Director of the SAMRO Foundation, said “the project is called the I AM project, not only because I AM is the acronym for Indigenous African Music, but makes a strong statement about African identity and heritage in connection with our famous spirit of Ubuntu – ‘I am because of who we all are.’”

Visits to the archive beforehand can be arranged through SAMRO.

Media houses are invited to arrive at The Orbit at 16:00 for 16:30 on November 1. The Orbit is located at 81 De Korte Street, Braamfontein 53-Ir, Johannesburg. Interested media should RSVP to harveycr@state.gov. The ceremony will include remarks by Chargé d’Affaires Jessye Lapenn and SAMRO Foundation Managing Director, André Le Roux.

More information about the AFCP may be found at https://ECA.State.Gov/Cultural-Heritage-Center/Ambassadors-Fund-Cultural-Preservation.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy Pretoria, South Africa.