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Watch part two
Abel Selaocoe hails from a poor township called Sebokeng near Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother is a domestic worker and many of his family members are unemployed.
A few years ago he started playing the violincello, and quickly rose to be one of the country's top young classical musicians, thereby challenging stereotypes in an environment where such music is often still seen as a "Western import" inimical to indigenous black culture.
Musical Investments follows Abel as he travels to Cape Town to take part in the yearly week-long MIAGI (Music Is A Great Investment) youth orchestra event, where he will be performing Boccherini's second cello concerto as soloist on the final night.
Students from highly varied social and racial backgrounds come together under the baton of Turkish maestro Cem Mansur in the lead-up to the concert at Cape Town's City Hall.
The film follows Abel's progress, with that of other students, through rehearsals, social encounters, impromptu jazz jams and the excitement before the final performance.
A portrait of how music can be a powerful instrument of transcending boundaries in a country only fifteen years removed from institutionalised racism.
Musical Investments aired from Thursday, July, 2010.
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