BY SHARON SIBINDI SOUTH African gospel singer Lebo Sekgobela will from tomorrow be joined by local artistes for a live virtual discussion themed Online Praise and Worship Master Class to empower artistes on how to remain relevant in the current COVID-19 era. The event, which is a brainchild of Samuel “Samuzik” Siwela (artiste and music producer) and Blessing “Stot” Sitotombe (musician and producer), will be on Zoom and will run from 5pm to 7pm from tomorrow to Saturday. On the local front, Sekgobela will be joined by Zimpraise chief executive officer Joseph Madziyire and Bulawayo gospel singer Mai Mwamuka, among others. In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Sitotombe said the project was part of their endeavours to empower musicians to better their craft. “The discussion will be in the form of a class set-up as people will be getting presentations from the selected facilitators discussing about nine topics around the running and management of a successful praise and worship team in the current times and new normal,” he said. “We realised that the church is being affected by this pandemic and in particular music teams as they cannot meet as regularly as before. We took this as an opportunity to come together and empower each other on how to remain relevant in the current times and how to deliver at the best of our abilities.” Sekgobela said they hope the artistes would be empowered and enriched such that when the pandemic is under control, they would be at a better level to withstand such shocks. “After this one, we have one for instrumentalists and music producers coming up. We hope the targeted people can catch on to this and register so we all improve and expand our abilities. The registration fee is $50 for churches (maximum of 8 people) and $10 per individual,” he said. “Registration closes on February 24 (today). This fee is to appreciate our facilitators for their time as well as cover administrative logistics. Knowledge is power and one can never stop learning, so let’s come together and be empowered.”