MUSICAL MIX AT NAF

Mzansi stars and international guests make for a fabulous musical mix at the 38th National Arts Festival which runs from June 28 to July 8 in Grahamstown this year.

2012 Standard Bank Young Artist for Music, Soprano Kelebogile Boikanyo’s rise in the South African opera world has been nothing short of remarkable. She celebrates her Award with a vocal recital, in which she performs with Thembisile Twala (soprano) and Abraham Paulus Ferreira (pianist), showing off her vocal versatility with a repertoire that ranges from Mozart and Donizetti, to Bizet and Offenbach, to Gershwin and Khumalo. Boikanyo also features, with outstanding marimba player Magda de Vries, in the annual Gala Concert conducted by Richard Cock.

Reflect. Celebrate. Live is the soundtrack-as-performance of diva Sibongile Khumalo’s musical life. It reprises her teenaged beginnings at the Ionian Youth Music Programme, through the years as a classically trained singer searching for her jazz voice, ending with a celebration of where she is now, and her current musical inclinations.

Celebrating the cultural exchange between France and South Africa, the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra will present an all-French programme, pairing two Romantic masterworks of Camille Saint-Saëns with the unjustly neglected symphony of Paul Dukas.

Ensembles from the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra will present a variety of works, while Colossus is their daring programme of large chamber works – named for the world première of composer David Plylar’s new work, entitled Colossus, which is included in the programme. The Los Angeles Children’s Chorus promises to move and delight South African audiences, and the ATKV present Ave Maria and Hallelujah/Alleluia; a selection of works with a youth choir, musicians and soloist Minette du Toit-Pearce.

The innovative mallet percussion duo, Duo FourIVTwo, with classical marimbist Magda de Vries and vibraphonist Frank Mallows, play an inspired repertoire of newly commissioned works by some of South Africa’s internationally acclaimed composers. In African Romantics, the End of Time Trio present works by Max Bruch and Peter Klatzow. Three’s Company explores music for three players Géza Kayser (violin), Liuben Gardev (cello), David Smith (keyboard), from the Baroque and Modernist eras.

Pierrot Lunaire, a song-cycle for soprano (Teresa de Wit) and instrumental quintet (End of Time Ensemble) composed by Arnold Schoenberg, has long been recognised as a key twentieth-century chamber composition, as important in its revolutionary aims and musical influence as Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Strauss’s Elektra.

The Chanticleer Singers present Ancient Inspirations, featuring Duo IVFour2 in a programme of music inspired by the original inhabitants of South Africa, with works by South African composers Peter Louis van Dijk, Peter Klatzow and Hans Roosenschoon. Their second programme is the candle-lit All Night Vigil – Rachmaninov’s Vespers, with soloist Veramarie Meyer.

Louis Armstrong & Friends features stunning arrangements of Armstrong classics with fine performances by Prince Lengoasa (trumpet and vocals), Veramarie Meyer (mezzo-soprano) and Nicholas Nicholaidis (tenor) and is conducted by Richard Cock.

Two Trios and a Quintet; featuring Hilton Schilder, Errol Dyers, Steve Newman, Greg Georgiades and Ashish Joshi; shows off the musicianship of this ensemble. Drawing on their vast collective experience of music collaborations, improvisations and performance, and using an array of acoustic string, percussion and wind instruments; musical magic will made through their combination of various cultural rhythms and instrumental sounds.

Soul of Fire is a genre-bending production conceived by Zanne Stapelberg and Kathleen Tagg, juxtaposing classical Spanish songs by Montsalvage with the instrumental tangos of Astor Piazzola in new, original arrangements, to the magical energy of Spanish Zarzuela

Sounds Like Fun is designed to introduce children and their parents to the wonders of a symphony concert. Richard Cock will also present a performance-lecture designed to demystify classical music and build on his sell-out lecture at the 2011 Festival.

Bookings for this year’s “11 Days of Amaz!ng” open in May at Computicket. Booking kits will be available from selected Standard Bank branches, selected Exclusive Books and Computicket branches from May. For more information on the programme, accommodation and travel options visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za. Also join the National Arts Festival group on Facebook for all the latest news, or follow us on Twitter.

The National Arts Festival is sponsored by Standard Bank, The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, The Eastern Cape Government, The National Arts Council, City Press and M Net.