(Pic: Vevek Ram)
Durban City Hall to come alive with Eastern and Western music on March 12.
The Durban City Hall comes alive with the diverse rhythms of Eastern and Western music on March 12 when the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra presents a concert in its current World Symphony Season Series titled Gift of Melody. Conducted by Naum Rousine, the concert will feature soloists Vevek Ram (sitar) and Haren Tana (tabla) playing Ram’s Concerto for Sitar, Tabla and string orchestra.
Vevek Ram is one of the few Indian classical musicians in South Africa and an accomplished sitar player, having studied under Ustad Shamim Ahmed. He has performed extensively as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians such as Deepak Ram and Darius Brubeck, among others. He is also a composer and has performed one of his own compositions for sitar and orchestra with the renowned English Chamber Orchestra. He has given several talks on Indian Classical Music at conferences in many countries, including the 2002 ICT globalization of Indian Music Conference in Bombay. He holds a PhD in Computer Science.
Haren Tana was born in India and started playing the tabla at the age of eight under the guidance of Parasuram Bhorwani. He studied advanced technique with Sudhirkumar Saxena, who was then Dean of Music at the University of Baroda. In 1976 he took up a lectureship at the Sangeet Natak Academy in Gujerat and in 1979 he won first place in the Pandit Omkarnath competition. He has accompanied many famous artists including Sultan Khan, Shamim Ahmed and Rajan Sajan Mishra. He immigrated to South Africa in 1991 and teaches and performs regularly, in addition to managing his own successful business.
Rodrigo’s timeless Concierto de Aranjuez marks the return of acclaimed guitarist James Grace. One of South Africa’s leading guitarists, he has appeared as soloist with the Cape Philharmonic, KZNPO, Johannesburg Festival and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2007 he gave the South African premiere of Cacho Tiraos’s Conciertango Buenos Aires for guitar and symphonic wind band. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Carlos Bonell and, upon graduating, he became the first guitarist in the history of the RCM to receive the Tagore Gold Medal, an annual award presented to the most outstanding student. Based in Cape Town since 2003, he maintains a full-time performing and teaching schedule. He has released three solo albums under his own record label, Stringwise Records; Granada – Music of Spain, Portrait and the newly released Café Latino. He is Head of Classical Guitar Studies at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town.
Other items on the programme are Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 Farewell Symphony and Bizet’s Suite No. 1 from Carmen.
The concert takes place in the Durban City Hall at 19h30. Tickets ranging from R60 to R180 available through Computicket.
NB: Prior to all the KZNPO World Symphony Season concerts, open rehearsals are held that morning at 10h00 at the Durban City Hall (R25 admission fee includes a cup of tea). Friends of Music hold pre-concert lectures in the Royal Hotel at 18h15. These enlightening talks are designed to enrich the experience of the concertgoer (R30 admission includes light refreshments).
Click on the KZNPO advert which appears on the main artSMart pages and this will take you to the orchestra’s website which gives details of the full symphony season as well as other KZNPO activities.
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