Music and Fringe feast at the Fest
28 June 2005
Hundreds of musicians with truckloads of instruments will converge on Grahamstown for the 2005 National Arts Festival - as will the comedians, dancers and actors playing up a storm on the discounted festival Fringe.
The main music line-up includes orchestral, chamber, choral, electronic and world music. Separate sections on the programme are devoted to new music and jazz, with more joyous sounds pouring out of dozens of Fringe festival venues round the clock.
Richard Cock conducts the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra in a symphony concert featuring three soloists: Francois du Toit playing Sans Saëns Piano Concerto No 2, and Mexico's celebrated cellist Carlos Prieto with the Spanish violinist Gerardo Ubaghs playing a new work composed for the 400th anniversary of Don Quixote.
The festival orchestra, conducted by Michael Hankinson, will play the Tchaikovsky score for the Cape Town City Ballet production of
Sleeping Beauty.
Richard Cock will conduct the orchestra and the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg in two programmes: a concert version of Gilbert and Sullivan's popular operetta Pirates of Penzance - with commentary links by Alan Swerdlow - and a classical concert featuring Haydn's Nelson Mass and John Rutter's Feel the Spirit.
The Spier-based lyric company Dimpho di Kopane will present two choral works that have had rave reviews in Europe and the US: Yiimimangaliso - The Mysteries and Ikumkanikazi yeKhephu - The Snow Queen. These are witty and sensitive Africanised versions of a medieval religious street theatre piece and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.
Thanduxolo Christian Ngqobe's oratorio Ibali Lomculo-Jesus: Life and Crucifixion will be performed by some of the Eastern Cape's finest voices, accompanied by the Legato Youth Orchestra.
The Congolese-style mass Missa Luba headlines a programme
of indigenous song by the University of Pretoria Chorale under the baton of Michael Dingaan. And the venerable split-tone singers of the Ngqoko Cultural Group, playing ancient African instruments, will show why they are so sought after by European festival organisers.
The festival also offers the opportunity to hear Mexico's Carlos Prieto, one of the world's greatest cellists, in concert with violinist Gerard Ubaghs of Spain. Multi-award-winning cellist Anzél Gerber presents two concerts of works adapted for cello and piano with chamber musician Anneke Lamont.
A rare musical presence on the international circuit is the young husband-and-wife team of sitarist Shubhendra Rao and cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas. Cello and sitar are played together in two recitals of classics and new compositions. She plays a specially modified cello, allowing both cellist and sitarist to sit, Indian-style, to perform.
Baroque and Blue is a winsome classical-jazz crossover presented
by flautist Helen Vosloo and jazz pianist Wessel van Rensburg.
The highly acclaimed young Sontonga String Quartet will present two late night concerts, with Matthew Reid as guest clarinettist.
Collage, another quartet, will perform both classics and pieces by South African composers, including Hendrik Hofmeyr and Hans Huyssen. Marianne Serfontein sings, with Marietjie Pauw on flute, Bennie van Eeden on piano and Anmari van der Westhuizen on cello.
Joel Ryan and Keir Neuringer of Holland's Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music will release the creative potential of their sci-fi music machines in two recitals that will fascinate both musos and techno-geeks alike.
Mexico's Grupo Mono Blanco (white monkey) will set pulses racing with their vivid son jarocho - the vernacular music and dance code from Veracruz, product of the cross-influences of Spanish, indigenous and African music.
Discount shows on the
Fringe
On the Grahamstown Festival Fringe, most shows on 30 June, the first day of the festival, are being sold at half price. Fringe artists are also offering students and friends of the festival discounted tickets.
A Fringe highlight this year is Zimbabwe's Dudu Manhenga and the Color Blu band, who present a high-performance, crossbreed musical experience that will appeal across the age divide. The Ancient Monarchy Music Project is a South African company playing the freshest Afro-indigenous harmonies and reggae.
There's plenty of comedy on the Fringe. From the creators of The Chilli Boy comes Hoot, the hilarious story of a white man who gets a job as a minibus taxi driver, performed by Matthew Ribnick.
In Defending the Laid Man David Newton explores the hilarious complications of sex in the 21st century. Cokey Falkow Stand-up Comic is known for a loose, improvised style of stand-up comedy, which has been a huge
hit on the international circuit.
In Missing Links, stand-up comedian Mark Sampson takes us on a ride through three billion years of evolution, from microbes to man, via a lot of monkeying about. And Shirley Kirchmann has some solid advice for women in her Barbara Woodhouse-inspired Train your Man.
Megan Bridge jets in from the US to present her multimedia award-winning dance piece The Fold, and the youthful, fresh exuberance of Cape Town's Afrika Ablaze Dance Company will have you rising to your feet in A Standing Ovation.
The Soweto Dance Project is Flying High in a presentation of three new works from South African choreographers, Nelisiwe Xaba, Disemelo Khasa and Pule Molebatsi.
Zoey Lapinsky's quirky physical theatre piece explores the highs, lows and insecurities of a not-quite five-foot dancer trying to capture A Side Portion of the Limelight.
Other highlights of the Festival Fringe include performances
by Andrew Buckland, Bheki Mkwane, Nicholas Ellenbogen, Jullian Mokoto, Greig Coetzee, Helena Hettema, Sylvaine Strike, Martin Kobokae, Vincent Nkosi, Ian von Memerty and Adi Paxton.
The National Arts Festival is sponsored by the Eastern Cape government, Standard Bank, the National Arts Council, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and the SABC.
For more information, visit the National Arts Festival website.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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