DKK tops Arts Fest music bill
24 March 2005
Acclaimed Cape-based lyric theatre company Dimpho Di Kopane, specialist in re-imaging the classics and imbuing them with South African perspectives, sets the tone for a 2005 National Arts Festival music programme particularly strong in voice and choral works.
The talents of Dimpho Di Kopane ("combined talents") will be showcased in two lyric works that have recently played to critical acclaim in New York and London.
"Yiimimangaliso The Mysteries" is a re-imagining in African vernacular of a medieval popular street-theatre piece. Dimpho Di Kopane's London run was a sell-out and extended twice by public demand.
"Ikumkanikazi yeKhephu The Snow Queen", commissioned for the Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Bicentennial Celebration in Denmark, uses traditional music and Xhosa ceremonies to restate the themes of reconciliation and transforming love.
Richard Cock conducts the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra in Mendelssohn's overture of A
Midsummer Night's Dream, the Fantasy Overture from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, and Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No 2 with soloist François du Toit.
The orchestra also performs a new work by Spanish composer Tomas Marco to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes' writing of Don Quixote de la Mancha. Soloists in this work are Mexican maestro Carlos Prieto, one of the world's most revered cellists, and Spanish violinist Gerardo Ubaghs.
The popular Johannesburg Symphony Choir presents two concerts with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, also under Cock's baton, with soloists Sibongile Khumalo, Beverley Chiat and Nicholas Nicolaidis.
The choir's first show features Haydn's Nelson Mass and John Rutter's "Feel the Spirit", while the second is a concert version of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" with commentary links by Alan Swerdlow.
World music gets a whirl with Grupo Mono Blanco ("white monkey") from Veracruz, Mexico,
exponents of son jarocho (irreverent sound), a vibrant regional folk music which traces its roots to African, Spanish and indigenous cultural influences. Stringed guitar-type instruments, witty vocals and vigorous heel-dancing all come to the party.
Some of the finest voices of the Eastern Cape, conducted by Malusi Mtyalela, join forces with the Legato Youth indigenous orchestra under the baton of Masibulele Mkosana to perform "Ibali Lomculo-Jesus: Life and Crucifixion" with a score composed by Thanduxolo Christian Ngqobe.
The Ngqoko Cultural Group, formed in 1983 to perform indigenous music once known as abahedeni (music of the heathens), are veterans of the European festival circuit, and their 2005 concert includes traditional songs accompanied by ancient instruments like the friction drum, the uhadi (percussion bow) and the umrhube (mouth bow).
The multi-lingual, 50-strong University of Pretoria Chorale, conducted by Michael Dingaan, presents a
programme of Indigenous African Songs, including works in Zulu, Pedi, Xhosa, Ndebele, Siswati, Venda and Setswana.
Soprano Marianne Serfontein with Marietjie Pauw (flute), Bennie van Eeden (piano) and Anmari van der Westhuizen (cello) forms the Collage Quartet to present two concerts, the first featuring classical and neo-romantic works and the second pieces by South African composers.
Exciting string ensemble the Sontonga Quartet, renowned for their performance of contemporary compositions, will present two late-night concerts, including a work by Osvaldo Golijov with clarinettist Michael Reid. The quartet features Marc Uys (violin), Waldo Alexander (violin), Xandi van Dijk (viola) and Brian Choveaux (cello).
The classical/jazz crossover makes for easy listening in "Baroque & Blue", a concert named after the CD that earned fame for Helen Vosloo (flute), Wessel van Rensburg (piano), Denis Lalouette (electric bass) and Rob Watson (drums). They play Bach, Scarlatti,
Faure, Bizet, Bolling and Piazzolla.
Sitarist Shubhendra Rao and cellist Saskia Rao-de Haas, accompanied by tabla player Biplab Bhattacharya, will marry East and West, producing a new musical language that has held audiences enthralled worldwide.
In another treat for cello fans, multi-award-winning cellist Anzél Gerber, accompanied by the accomplished soloist and chamber musician Anneke Lamont (piano), presents two recitals of works by Brahms, Beethoven, Kreisler, Paganini, Schumann.
Back to the future, music meets science fiction in two concerts presented by Joel Ryan and Keir Neuringer from Amsterdam's STEIM (the studio for electro-instrumental music). They use saxophone and self-built wind and digital instruments based on real time signal processing.
Joy of Jazz Festival
Swinging collaborations across nations and genres is the spirit of the 10-day Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival in Grahamstown, incorporating the Standard
Bank National Youth Jazz Festival.
John Fedchock from the US, the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, and an international posse from Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Portugal, Israel, France and Norway will jam it with South African trumpeter Marcus Wyatt, saxophonist Zim Ngqawana, guitarist Selaelo Selota and vocalist Gloria Bosman, to mention a few.
Electrifying young pianist Andile Yenana is this year's Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Music. An Eastern Cape homeboy, he has performed to acclaim in the United States, Britain and France.
New Music Indaba
The New Music Indaba theme for 2005, "re-imagining Africa", draws music and musicians from Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Zimbabwe, the DRC and South Africa. Uganda's Justinian Tamusuza is composer in residence.
The popular Stockholm Saxophone Quartet will be back, and Luc Houtkamp's POW3 (Netherlands) will display their virtuosity with computers,
turntables, live electronics, voice, tenor sax and a tap dancer.
Voice is well represented by the likes of Liberian-born soprano Dawn Padmore and uhadi bow singer Madosini (in the final phase of the Bow Project).
The 2005 choral concert is dedicated to Enoch Sontonga, who died 100 years ago.
The National Arts Festival takes place in Grahamstown from 30 June to 9 July and 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.
Source: National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
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