Newport Live celebrates the 30th anniversary of South African Freedom Day with a performance by Melanie Scholtz and Aaron Rimbui, this Friday, June 21, at the Newport Art Museum. This is the third in the series celebrating South African Freedom Day. Shows commemorate the April 1994 elections that brought Nelson Mandela to power.

Vocalist and composer and Standard Band Jazz Award winner Melanie Scholtz joins Nairobi-born pianist Aaron Rimbui in a tribute to the late Miriam Makeba, with a performance at 7:30 p.m. They will be joined by a special guest from Lincoln Center Jazz, Seton Hawkins, curator of Lincoln Center Jazz Swing University, to speak about South Africa and South African Jazz.

Melanie Scholtz is a South African born, multi-award winning jazz singer and composer. Melanie was named the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz and in 2012 won all three prizes at the prestigious Jazz Revelations competition as part of the Jazz a Juan Festival in Nice, France. She started playing the piano from the age of 5 and went on to study opera at The University of Cape Town Opera School. She has released five successful solo albums and has been a featured artist and guest songwriter on many albums nationally and internationally.

Rimbui is a Kenyan pianist, keyboardist, bandleader and producer who also goes by the nickname Krucial. He is regarded as one of East Africa's finest pianists and has served as head the Tusker Project Fame band. Like many jazz pianists, he started with a classical music education. He picked up the drums and played them for most of his childhood and early teens, when at the age of 15, he started on the piano.

Purchase tickets here.