10 Jun 2021

The Botswana Choral Music Association (BOCMA) will on June 26, hold executive committee elections.

In an interview with BOPA on Wednesday, BOCMA presidential candidate Mike Modise, said his focus would be to commercialise choral music, should he get the nod to lead the association for the next four years.

Modise said he would strive to empower choristers, particularly through development. “In this business there are people who aspire to be composers, adjudicators, conductors, choir management and many more,” he stated Modise, adding that they thus need to be empowered and subsequently enabled to achieve globally recognised accreditation.Campaigning under the banner of TeamTswelelopele, he said commercialisation of choral music would provide the much needed value chain, which will create more job opportunities, especially for the youth.

He said with many soloists in the country, there was need for standardisation of rate fees, operating hours and general quality control issues, which would benefit both the choristers and the consumers.

Saying digitisation cannot be overlooked in this fourth industrialisation period, Modise said if given the mandate to lead the association, his executive committee’s roadmap would prioritise and drive it.

“As BOCMA we should also keep up with the new normal and our members should be enabled and enhanced in the digital space,” he said.

Other key points which Modise said his committee’s would focused on are planning, coordination and accountability to all key stakeholders of the genre so as to attract financial injection.

Inclusivity, he said, was imperative, especially onboarding marginalised and vulnerable members of the society. “Already we intend to have at least three women in the seven positions of the executive committee and this is the progress we are talking about,” he said.

BOCMA has always had good relations in the region as seen with local choirs competing in the region’s choir festivals, he said, adding ‘our focus will be starting from home ground competition to further enhance our regional relations’.

He said they also needed to establish strong partnerships with South African choral music associations to benchmark, as they had advanced structures in place. Modise noted that with the right structures, sponsors would also be willing to come on board.

The outgoing BOCMA president, Bushi Bogosing said he leaves office content as he believes his time in office gave the youth an opportunity to recognise and appreciate the association as well as a platform to deliberate on issues concerning choral music in Botswana.

He said choral music in Botswana had seen growth, not only locally, but regionally as other stakeholders in the Southern Africa region recognised its existence; by extending relations with local choirs through festivals, especially the popular Old Mutual Festival in South Africa.

Bogosing said under his leadership, BOCMA membership also grew with inclusion of church and tertiary institutions choirs as well as individuals.

He noted that the association also saw the addition of male and female sections as well as inclusion of Section C to the competitions, in addition to Section A (Large) and B (Standard), which were already in place.

The mentors section was also another added to the competition, as a provision to the elderly, who were still actively participating in choral music, he noted.

Although they faced financial challenges during their term, Bogosing said his committee managed to host the BTC-sponsored beMobile National Choir Festival, six years ago.

He therefore appealed to corporates and other stakeholders to support choral music in Botswana for the new committee to successfully execute its vision of continuing to grow choral music.

The last BOCMA executive elections were held in 2016, with the 2020 elections cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ends