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MUSIC AND MITZVAHS THE MUSIC OF SHARON KATZ | BY MIMI POLLACK
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t is unusual when a person combines great talent with compassion for others, but from personal and perhaps biased experience, I can attest that South African musician, Sharon Katz, has both in spades. Music can soothe and heal the soul, no matter where you are from. Imagine growing up in South Africa during the time of Apartheid as a discretely rebellious Jew. For Sharon Katz, music was a salvation and a door to a world she wasn’t supposed to be a part of, but later thrived in and found her voice to speak up.. Today, Katz is a musician and music therapist, and Director of The Peace Train Project. Born in Port Elizabeth, now known as Nelson Mandela Bay in 1955, Katz's life was changed at 15 when she saw an anti-apartheid play, and her eyes were opened. The Jews of that area were in an enclave of their own in a way, and people lived separate lives and did not mingle much. Katz took refuge in music and taught herself to play the guitar at the age of 11 by listening to the music of Simon
and Garfunkel; Peter, Paul, and Mary; and Pete Seeger. That led to a life in music and making a difference, and the formation of the life changing Peace Train Project, where a mingling of music and compassionate activism was encouraged and grew. In her later teen years, she formed friendships with anti-apartheid actors John Kani [of Black Panther fame] and Winston Ntshona. She would visit them in their homes in New Brighton Township. However, she was highly secretive about this as she knew if she told others about it, they would try to stop her as it wasn’t considered safe. In a way, she led a double life. She was also active in the Jewish community and had a very strong communal life within her family, school, and various bands and singing groups. Music became her way to try and bring together a torn nation. The Peace Train Project was formed in 1992 as a way to honor Nelson Mandela, who would become president in 1994, and help heal a divided country. By then, Katz had her master’s degree
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in music therapy and along with her Zulu singing partner, Nonhlanhla Wanda, formed a 500-voice multiracial and multicultural youth choir. They hired a train, dubbed “The Peace Train,” and they traveled to various and still separated communities all over South Africa. The goal was to rehearse and build trust as they stopped and performed in different towns. Katz likes to say that the Peace Train was a moving billboard for Mandela's message of peaceful coexistence. In 2013, they celebrated 20 years of that original ride through South Africa. A 2015 documentary, When Voices Meet, chronicles this time and the 20 years that follow. The documentary can be found on Amazon Prime. Later on, Katz moved to Philadelphia and it became her home base where she taught classes and from where she traveled to concerts all over the U.S. and the world spreading her message of humanitarianism. In 2018, she and her life and business partner, Marilyn Cohen, made another
