(Reviews from the artSMart team currently in Grahamstown
at the 2015 National Arts Festival)
Magnificent and
very well-received concert sets the tone for classical music offerings at NAF.
(Review by Keith Millar)
A little while ago,
I attended a delightful Friends of Music recital at the Durban Jewish Centre in
Durban featuring the Lonestar Classical Voices Quartet. Michael Green’s
insightful review of that recital is available on the artSMart webpage at http://news.artsmart.co.za/2015/07/fom-baroque-2000.html
I enjoyed the concert
so much that when I saw that the Quartet was scheduled to perform two concerts
at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, I immediately added them to my
list of productions not to be missed.
I was fortunate
enough to attend their first concert and was once again blown away by the
standard of the performance.
The Lonestar
Classical Voices Quartet comprises two South African artists who are now based
in the USA, two Americans singers and a Korean born accompanist. All five hold
doctorate degrees in music.
Singing soprano is
the much loved, Durban-born Bronwen Forbay. Forbay was a featured Standard Bank
Young Artist for Music at the Festival in 2007. She is also a Fulbright alumna.
The Americans in
the group are the serene and graceful mezzo-soprano Jamie van Eyck, and the
sweet toned lyrical tenor, Randy Umstead. The impressive baritone voice in the
quartet is that of Christiaan Bester, who is another South African based in
America. The accompanist is the very accomplished Korean born pianist, Kaju
Lee.
The Beethoven Room,
which was the venue for the concert was bursting at the seams with concert
goers. They reacted ecstatically to the programme of German music which included
two groups of Johannes Brahms’s Liebeslieder (love songs) and a selection of songs
from operettas composed by Johan Strauss 11 and Franz Lehár.
The group were
joined by pianist Catherine Folcroft for the Liebeslieder.
Favourites were
Umstead’s performance of Yours Is My Heart
Alone by Franz Lehár, Bronwen Forbay singing My Dear Marquis (The Laughing Song) from Strauss’ Die Fledermaus and the duo by Van Eyck
and Bester of Though Lips are Sealed
from The Merry Widow by Lehár.
Romantic Songs of Love was a magnificent and very well-received
concert and sets the tone for the classical music offerings at the festival. The
production was presented by the National Arts Festival with the support of the
American Embassy and in association with Baylor University and Georgia College.
– Keith Millar
(For more information on the National Arts Festival click
on the banner advert at the top of this page or visit www.nationalartsfestival.co.za)
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