Sharon Katz & The Peace Train

  • Katz, Sharon
  • Year Grant Awarded: 2013

Sharon Katz is a South African musician who mounted the historic Peace Train tour by train across South Africa in 1993 to help Nelson Mandela to achieve a non racial democracy after the ending of apartheid. Sharon has been spreading the message of South Africa’s peaceful transition and the role that The Peace Train project played in that transition, in schools, colleges, performing arts centers and at conferences and festivals throughout the world ever since. Highlights include performances for Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, a collaborative recording with Sting, Elton John and Tina Turner, a Grammy nominated CD “Imbizo” and recordings with South African legends Abigail Kubeka and Dolly Rathebe. Sharon was joined by Pete Seeger in special performances dedicated to her humanitarian work in building a school in South Africa and her concerts have been featured at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Getty Museum in LA, Epcot Center in Disney World and she has keynoted Music Therapy and Music Education Conferences in Halifax Nova Scotia and Panama City. The current project, being funded in part by the Puffin Foundation, is the creation of a feature documentary about the impact of The Peace Train Project from 1992-1998 upon the lives of the participants during the ending of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Puffin Foundation assisted in the completion of a nine and a half minute Preview/Trailer of the documentary “When Voices Meet” which is being used to raise the funds for the full feature documentary. The documentary will describe in detail the impact of The Peace Train Project upon the youth of The Peace Train aged 12-17 when they began singing in a 500 voice choir with Sharon in 1992. The children came from areas divided by apartheid. Today these youth are successful adults living in the New South Africa and their interviews, along with interviews with celebrities with whom Sharon has worked, will make up this unique and important documentary.

Additional Websites: www.whenvoices.meet.com