Scarred by physical and mental abuse under apartheid, the classical player came to the
UK to build his career. Now he’s on a mission to create a bass repertoire in the country of his birth
As a person of colour growing up in
South Africa in the 1970s, double bass player Leon Bosch was scarred physically and mentally by the country’s apartheid regime. “They abused me, imprisoned me, ill-treated me, and I didn’t want to have any contact with them,” he says. He sought refuge in the UK in the early 80s, and built a successful career here. Now, though, he has made his peace with South Africa, and his latest disc underlines that spirit of reconciliation.
Working with Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebeca Omordia, Bosch has recorded a set of pieces for bass and piano that he commissioned from South African composers in a one-man attempt to create a bass repertoire in the country of his birth. “The idea of the project is not just to record the music,” he explains, “but to commission as much
music as possible by good South African composers so that future generations will have music to play.” Over the past four years he has commissioned almost 40 pieces, and nine of them have made it on to the new disc: “The pieces,” he says, “that spoke most loudly to me.”