(Conductor Lyk Temmingh)KZN Philharmonic Winter Season climaxes with a wealth of fresh young talent.
The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2011 World Symphony Series Winter Season reaches a climactic highpoint on June 16 in the Durban City Hall with an enticing concert programme entitled The Best of All Possible Worlds. Conducted by Lykele Temmingh, it features some high-powered young talent in an eclectic line-up of Anglo-American concert show-stoppers by Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, Astor Piazolla and Gustav Holst.
The concert opens on a theatrical note with Bernstein’s ebullient Candide Overture in which the KZNPO welcomes a number of gifted new guest artists onto its roster. Occupying the principal desks in the strings section are four distinguished young visiting musicians who constitute the Ensemble ACJW of The Academy, a programme of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. They are Angelia Cho (violin), Joanna Marie Frankel (violin), Brenton Caldwell (viola), and Caitlin Sullivan (cello).
Taking the solo spotlight is the multi-award-winning young saxophonist, Ashu. The playing of this rising star on the international music circuit, has been described as ‘Musical passion personified’ (Vision Magazine), while the Dallas Morning News opined that it is "...just as much fun to watch him as it is to listen to him”.
This charismatic young artist has already begun to bring the concert saxophone to a broader audience by bridging the divide between musical genres. He will perform Escapades by the celebrated American film composer John Williams, adapted from the 2002 Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, as well as playing two of his own arrangements of Latin American tangos by the renowned Argentinean master of the genre, Astor Piazolla.
Then it’s all-stops-out for the evening’s grand finale, a performance of Gustav Holst’s splendid astrological extravaganza for orchestra, The Planets. Joining the KZNPO for this famously themed suite of tone poems that rank among the 20th century’s great show-pieces for a full-scale symphony orchestra in all its sonic glory, are the Bochabela Strings. These representatives of the acclaimed Bloemfontein-based music development initiative have had the benefit of specialised tutoring in preparation for this concert by the Ensemble ACJW artists during their South Africa Residency.
This week’s concert will also serve to launch the KZNPO’s forthcoming Spring Season, and will end with celebratory complimentary chocolates and bubbly being served in a special marquee adjacent to the City Hall after the season’s final notes have sounded.
The concert takes place at 19h30 in the Durban City Hall. The KZNPO in association with Friends of Music will present their regular pre-concert lecture in the Royal Hotel at 18h15. Booking is at Computicket. Extra security will be in place in the vicinity of the City Hall for the safety of patrons.
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