PIPE ORGAN SOUNDS AGAIN

It has been many years since the public has been able to hear the fine pipe organ on the Westville campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Installed in 1977 in what was then the auditorium of the Music Department of the University of Durban-Westville, it was played by many local and international organists until the Music Department was closed a decade ago. The auditorium is now part of the Graduate School of Business, but through the initiative of Dr Christopher Cockburn, an organist on the staff at the UKZN Music School, the organ has been restored to working order and will be heard for the first time in a concert presented by the Music School today (October 23).

Dr Cockburn, well known throughout South Africa as an organ recitalist and accompanist, will play solo organ music by Bach, Hindemith and Vierne, and will be joined by fellow-lecturer Dr Liezl-Maret Jacobs in an organ duet by Mozart.

In the rest of the programme the organ will be featured in combination with other instruments and voices. Students from UKZN’s Opera Studio and Choral Academy (OSCA) will sing two movements from Mozart’s Organ Solo Mass, together with a small string ensemble which will also play a Handel Organ Concerto and a Mozart Church Sonata. The organ will accompany tenor Mhlaba Buthelezi in Vierne’s song cycle Les Angelus, and members of the Durban Chamber Choir, directed by Carol Stranex, in Poulenc’s Litanies to the Black Virgin of Rocamadour’.

The concert takes place today (October 23) at 15h00 in the auditorium of the Graduate School of Business (GSB) on UKZN’s Westville Campus (directions below). Tickets R60 (R30 concessions) available at the door. For further information contact the concert organizer, Babalwa Mentjies, on 031 260-3353 or email mentjies@ukzn.ac.za

Directions to the Graduate School of Business: Take Exit 7 (Westville) from the M13, follow University Road to the main entrance gate. Continue up the hill past the sports centre to the traffic circle. Do not turn left but continue straight ahead (past the Risk Management Services office) – follow the signs to COMSA Lounge and GSB. The GSB is at the top of the hill on your left (above the Asoka Theatre).

For directions and a map, go to the UKZN homepage (www.ukzn.ac.za) and follow these links: About UKZN; UKZN campuses; Westville. Alternatively, go directly to www.ukzn.ac.za/map.aspx, click on ‘Westville’, then ‘Building QuickSearch, Graduate School of Business’. The GSB appears as the square-roofed building on the left of the aerial photograph.