(Richard Cock
receiving his award with Gcina Mhlophe, Welcome Msomi & Sydney Mbhele. Pic by
Gareth Jacobs)
The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) named conductor Richard
Cock as the 2014 ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Music
Born in Port Elizabeth and educated at Woodridge Preparatory
School and the Diocesan College in Cape Town, Richard Cock pursued his musical
studies at the Cape Town College of Music, where he graduated in 1971. A year
later, he won a scholarship to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) in
England, where he was awarded several prizes and diplomas.
Cock became Director of Music at the Cathedral Choir School
and assistant organist at Chichester Cathedral in 1978 and during his years in
England he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. After his return
to South Africa in 1980, Cock, as Music Director from 1991, breathed new life
into the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). His innovative spirit saw the
orchestra expand its horizons with open-air events, such as the successful
Emmarentia Gardens Winter Series, Musical Fireworks and Pops Concerts, Music in
the Zoo and tours from Cape Town to Cairo.
In 1999 he left the NSO to pursue a freelance career and to
stimulate music activities throughout South Africa, which he has done with
marked success.
Since then he has conducted symphony, choral and many major
concerts in Johannesburg and throughout Southern Africa. Cock has conducted
light classical concerts entitled Bach to
Broadway, Flights of Fantasy and Lloyd
Webber and Friends, and has given concerts for children and senior
citizens. He is in much demand countrywide as a conductor for the popular Last Night of the Proms concerts and Songs of Praise, to name a few.
In recent years he conducted his first full-length opera,
Mozart’s Don Giovanni, in
Bloemfontein. Cock has toured South Africa with international musicians such as
Julian Lloyd-Webber, Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell and Katherine Jenkins, and he
regularly conducts Starlight Classics
for Rand Merchant Bank. However, it is as a choral trainer and conductor that
Cock is best known. He founded the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the
internationally-recognised Chanticleer Singers over 33 years ago. Both are
recognised as leaders in their respective fields.
Cock was Organist and Director of Music at St Mary’s
Cathedral for 12 years and was elected a Fellow of the Royal School of Church
Music for his services to Church Music in South Africa. He is Chairman of the
Apollo Music Trust, and is on the Board of Trustees of Business and Arts South
Africa (BASA), the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and on the Artistic
Committee of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.
In collaboration with Florian Uhlig, he directs the
Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (JIMF) which is held annually. He is
also involved in a number of successful outreach projects in Soweto and
Eldorado Park.
In May 2000, he received an Honorary Doctorate in music from
Rhodes University, in 2012 A Parnassus Award from Stellenbosch University and
in 2013 a special Award from the ATKV for his 30 years dedication to spreading
the love of music in South Africa.
The 2014 ACT Awards ceremony is sponsored by Nedbank Arts
Affinity, hosted by Sun International and presented in association with the Dramatic,
Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), Media24 Books, ClassicFeel
Magazine and is supported by the Distell Foundation and Business and Arts South
Africa (BASA).
Other Lifetime Achievement Award Winners include Richard
Loring for Theatre, Andre Brink for Literature, Sam Nzima for Visual Art and
Mandie van der Spuy for Arts Advocacy. Each Lifetime Achievement Award winner
received R30,000 as a cash prize.
For more information about the Arts & Culture Trust
(ACT) visit http://www.act.org.za/
Posts
