Mr Isaacs and his school of super musicians

 

Trevino Isaacs, the founder and principal of Mitchells Plain Music Academy🎹

The morning cruise joined by Trevino Isaacs, the principal and founder of the Mitchells Plain music academy, a music program established in 2014 and has ever since been offering “affordable yet quality” music tuition carried out by highly skilled teachers, instrumentalist and musicians. Let’s see what else was said in the interview

The interview kicked off with myself and Trevino highlighting a summer’s day in the heart of winter and in no time Trevino started sharing key stories from his upbringing saying “I can thank my grandparents and my mother for not becoming a statistic of the Cape flats”. Trevino comes from a musically rich family, in which his grandparents were leading figures while his mom was working at the Micthells Plain hospital, they taught him about love, life, gospel and music. Trevino has taken what his grandparents had instilled in him and started a journey of his own, with music right beside him. Trevino continued by emphasizing the  importance of not leaving behind your community rather by uplifting and changing the narrative for people coming  out of struggling communities such as Mitchells Plain – he knew only way to do this , through music.

From informal lessons in his living to an entire institution based on investing into the musical talents of the youth – the seed was planted way before the   institution was established in 2014, it started when Trevino was in High school and at the age of 15 was scouted by a band who was then known as Backchat but has now rebranded and is called Take Note (The band usually accompanies the Cape Town born entertainer, Emo Adams, on stage). It was a while after continuously performing with the band when Trevino was asked to give extra lessons to a music student who was readying himself for a jazz audition in Grahams, Trevino then carried out by giving extra lessons despite not having done formal lessons – The music student was selected to be part of the jazz band in Grahams town, and from there Trevino was recommended to other musical students in need of tuition and the institution’s official establishment followed soon after.

With the Mitchells plain music now coming to life, Trevino was left with no choice but to further his education by finishing his matric at night school and obtaining various qualifications through different universities and colleges, including Stellenbosch.  Trevino became qualified in both financial management as well as music, these qualifications were needed in order to take the academy to the next level and establish it as a school and business. Trevino’s aim and mission for the academy reads “to offer affordable yet quality lessons” – this standard has been held high since the establishment of the Mitchells Plain Music academy. Trevino famously said in the interview “when everything was up and running, I had no idea how to conduct or to run a music program” but thanks to his long years of performing in bands with the likes of Emo Adams and the legend David Kramer as well as the knowledge from his business studies made it easier for Trevino to access information and his networks to lay down a working music program and create employment, he did exactly that.  With students traveling from all parts of Cape Town to join the academy, it currently stands with over 200 students and over 10 employed staff.

Trevino left us with some sweet words saying “it was a blessing to have played with such influential figures in the industry” – this helped Trevino to teach what he was taught. He also said “The Cape Flats is filled with talent from musicians to actors and actresses” - I could not agree more. It was such a pleasure talking to someone who has taken the initiative to invest in the lives of others, I could not help but think of him as Professor X and his students as the school of superheroes.

Presenter: Riyaaz Semaar

Producer: Riyaaz Semaar