In The B-Side, about one of South Africa’s most influential yet overlooked composers, Reuben T. Caluza, will make its Cape Town premiere with four performances at Artscape Theatre from 17–19 September 2026.
The production revives the music of Reuben Tholakele Caluza (1895–1969) — once celebrated across South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States as the “African Star” — whose songs of protest, love, labour, and satire helped shape South African music but were largely lost to the country’s sound archives. The project is the work of composer Philip Miller and conductor, music director, and composer Tshegofatso Moeng, who together created the fresh musical arrangements of Caluza’s rediscovered songs at the heart of the production.
Featuring a company of young and seasoned singers from the AfriArts Chorus, dynamic choreography, and animated film projected behind the performers, the show brings Caluza’s repertoire vividly into the present.
FROM CRISIS TO CREATION: THE ORIGIN STORY
The project began in 2020, when Philip Miller — searching for a way to support musicians left without income during COVID-19 lockdown — discovered that Caluza had written a song titled “Influenza (1918)” during the Spanish flu pandemic a century earlier. Miller created a fresh arrangement, and, working entirely by cellphone with Brazilian video designer Marcos Martins and ten singers recording remotely, produced a music video for the song.
The response launched an online relief campaign, #MusoReliefSA, which raised R300,000 to support an extended community of musicians and singers throughout the five months of lockdown — and revealed a wealth of Caluza’s music still waiting to be rediscovered. Miller was soon joined by Tshegofatso Moeng, and together the pair began transcribing, arranging, and recording more of Caluza’s forgotten songs, building an “online family” of singers from across the country. Their joint arrangements — bringing Caluza’s century-old compositions into fresh, contemporary musical form — are the creative foundation of the entire project.
WHY CALUZA MATTERS TODAY
Caluza’s career began as a teacher at the Ohlange Institute in Durban — one of South Africa’s first Black colleges, founded by ANC founding president John L. Dube. He laterstudied at the Hampton Institute and Columbia University in the United States before returning to South Africa to become professor of music at Adams College near Durban. Musically, Caluza broke from the rigid hymn-singing style imposed under British colonial rule, fusing indigenous African rhythms and isicathamiya-style dance with the syncopation of American ragtime. He recorded an album, The Double Quartet, in 1930, and built a career as an internationally recognised composer and intellectual — all while working under the constraints of British colonial rule.
Leading scholars have underscored the continued relevance of Caluza’s work, and of Miller and Moeng’s arrangements of it
THE CAPE TOWN PREMIERE: SEPTEMBER 17–19, 2026
The Cape Town run marks the project’s most ambitious staging yet, featuring:
● Four live performances combining music, choreography, and projected animated film
● A cast drawn from the AfriArts Chorus, blending young emerging talent with seasoned professional singers
● Continued growth of the project’s digital archive, preserving Caluza’s sheet music, recordings, and research for musicians, musicologists, historians, and cultural researchers for generations to come
Artscape Theatre has generously partnered with the production, covering all venue and technical costs.
The production is also inviting sponsors and donors to support the Cape Town run directly including underwriting outreach tickets for students and community members who would not
otherwise have access to the performances. Sponsorship enquiries can be directed to the contacts under INFO below.
WHAT: THE B-SIDE – Reuben T. Caluza
WHERE: Artscape Theatre, Foreshore, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: September 17–19, 2026
BOOKING: Webtickets | R200 per ticket for individual tickets; R150 per ticket for groups of 5 or more.
INFO: VISIT | Philip Miller E philm@iafrica.com & Tshegofatso Moeng E tj.moeng@gmail.com
