Johannesburg

The Wits Innovation Centre, in partnership with the Machine Intelligence & Neural Discovery Institute at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa, has launched the pilot project AI & African Music, expanding AI datasets and applications into African contexts.

Africa No Filter and the British Council have published a new resource that can benefit anyone involved in or interested in developing arts and cultural projects across Africa.

If you stroll through the University of Johannesburg’s campus on a Tuesday night, you will hear strains of music floating over the evening air, from Mascagni to Dvorak and Faure to Mozart.

Those sounds are the work of the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra, the senior ensemble of the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra Company (JYOC) whose members range from primary school children to students in their 20s. The young musicians come from all over the city and province, from all races, classes, and income groups in a country with the greatest wealth gap in the world.