(Richard Cock)
One of Durban’s prime cultural attractions, the annual
Corobrik Orchestra concert presented by the British Cultural and Heritage
Association (BCHA), will be held on August 9.
The BCHA has lined up an enticing programme of musical items
to be performed by a massed ad-hoc orchestra under the baton of maestro Richard
Cock, always a major role-player on the South African national music scene. The
annual event includes the participation of the Steel Drum Band and its
affiliate group of Marimba Players.
Participants and audience members will be pleased to hear
that the venue chosen for Corobrik Orchestra 2015 is in a more central locale
than it has been in recent years. It will take place in the Nkulisa Conference
Centre, in the grounds of Penzance Primary School.
Participants must be able to read and play music. They are
required to pay an entry fee of R60, and to register to play either as
individuals of as part of a group. Each musician will be issued with a
complimentary ticket for a family member or friend to attend the event.
Participants are encouraged to be as conversant as possible with the prescribed
music, so that the concert will be a fulfilling experience if all players
perform at their best, thus achieving a successful team effort.
Says conductor Cock, the mastermind behind the project: “This
annual event offers aspirant musicians the unique experience of simply jumping
in the deep end and playing in an orchestra. Without professional experience,
but with a modicum of preparedness, it is astonishing how readily the process
comes together with one intensive rehearsal session. People with a variety of
skills are carried along by the overall impetus, and by the prevailing spirit
of shared endeavour. The stronger players pull the weaker ones along with them.
Everyone has to play along, and our audience is invariably amazed at what can
be achieved under duress. I always try to create an environment which enables
people to savour the joy of making and listening to music with each other. This
is a perfect example.”
Dirk Meyer, Managing Director of Corobrik says: “The
all-embracing sound of orchestral music has the power to exercise a positive
effect over audiences, by creating in a spirit of upliftment and of shared
emotional experience. This effect is often tinged with happy memories, and it
invariably creates a positive energy and a rich sense of communal enjoyment.
For this reason Corobrik is delighted once again to support Orchestra 2015. We
wish all the practicing and amateur musicians involved in the project, as well
as the lovers of music who form our audience, an exhilarating and memorable
time spent in each other’s company.”
To register to play in Corobrik Orchestra 2015, call 031 202
6174 or e-mail bcha1820@global.co.za.
The event on August 9 will kick off at 14h30, following a massed
orchestra rehearsal held between 11h00 and 14h00. As a curtain-raiser to the
main concert, the Marimba Players will perform between 14h30 and 14h50,
followed by a 20-minute performance by the Steel Drum Foundation from 15h00
which will include the traditional song, Masithi
Amen.
The main concert runs from 15h30 to 16h30, opening with the
South African National Anthem. Items to be heard on the generously packed
line-up of concert evergreens include: the Theme
from Star Wars by John Williams;
the Richard Rodgers’s musical standard, Some
Enchanted Evening from South Pacific;
Glow Idyll by Paul Lincke; King
Cotton by Suza, Brahms’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 5; and the much-loved Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss Jnr.
This will be followed by performances of three popular items
such as Bare Necessities, Shosholoza,
You’ll Never Walk Alone, a Sinatra medley titled Salute to Ole Blue Eyes, and the show-stopping Can-Can from Offenbach’s Orpheus
in the Underworld.
Seating is unreserved and tickets at R50 will be sold at the
door. The British Cultural and Heritage Association offers sponsored tickets to
the John Palmer Residence for the Blind and the KZN Cerebral Palsy Association,
as well as a number of children’s homes, who greatly appreciate being part of
this fun-filled afternoon.
The Nkulisa Conference Centre is situated in the grounds of
Penzance Primary School, at 61 Penzance Road in Glenwood. Secure parking is available.
Posts
