When British viola player Rosemary Nalden first visited Diepkloof in 1992 she found a typical apartheid township - wall-to-wall matchbox houses and searing poverty.
The London-based musician had heard about a guy who was teaching the violin in the township and didn't have instruments.
"After hearing the story, a group of friends and I raised funds to visit South Africa to go and see the township ourselves.
"It was very, very unusual for a white woman to suddenly appear in a South African township. It was unheard of."She was inspired by the enthusiasm and talent she found in the township and returned to Diepkloof to train aspirant musicians.
"What amazed me the most was the look on the children's faces when they first touched the violin.
"They had nothing, but wanted to learn and showed commitment immediately.
"They had the raw talent that made me keep coming back," says Nalden.
Parents soon started to notice the impact of music on their children and the Buskaid Soweto String Project was launched in response to requests from the Diepkloof community.
It started with 15 students and its music school now has 125 students ranging between the ages of six and 34.Before 1994 there were few opportunities for black people to explore classical music. The late violin maestro Michael Masote's love affair with this genre started in 1950 when violinist Yehudi Menuhin toured South Africa and gave a free concert in Sophiatown. Nine-year-old Masote was hooked.
It became his mission to start a symphony orchestra for black children as racially mixed orchestras were banned.
Masote is also famous for translating Handel's Messiah into nine local languages.When he died in June, his obituary in the Sunday Times described how he taught himself to conduct by paying the janitor at the Johannesburg City Hall to lend him his uniform and a broom when the National Symphony Orchestra was having rehearsals. While pretending to sweep in the passage outside the hall, he would study the movements of the conductor and pay careful attention to what he said to his orchestra.
In 1965, Masote started the Soweto Youth Orchestra at Uncle Tom's Hall in Orlando West; it grew into the Soweto Symphony Orchestra.
Today Masote's ambition is being fulfilled by violinists such as Keabetswe Goodman, who joined Buskaid 15 years ago when she was 12.
"The first time I saw a violin was when our neighbours had a visitor who was carrying a violin and my mother called me to come see it."I touched it and my mother said to me, 'I think this can be your hobby,'" says Goodman.
 After failing matric she did some soul-searching. "I looked at the violin and I realised that this is my God-given talent and one thing that I'm good at."
Eighteen-year-old Khotso Langa started playing violin at the age of three when he accompanied his cousins to lessons.
"I remember being told that I was a naughty and restless baby and irritated everyone. I started copying what they were doing during the class and Rosemary put a violin under my chin. Since then I've never stopped."
There have been low points in the 20 years since Buskaid was formed, and many obstacles - precarious funding, hugely talented musicians who bail out because of difficult circumstances.In a 2013 interview, Nalden recalled a talented pupil caught in a spiral of drugs and alcohol. He managed to rehabilitate himself, but was killed just as he had resumed a successful career as a violinist.
But along with the lows there have been many highs. Buskaid musicians have performed in countless countries, from Brazil to France and Colombia to Syria, and in front of luminaries such as Luciano Pavarotti and Michelle Obama. For any kid, that's a high note...