A ROCKING WORLD TOUR

(Pic by Barry Meehan)

This team takes the audience on a wild roller coaster ride around the world performing popular music from many countries. By their reaction the audience loved the show and had a good time. (Review by Keith Millar)

It is party time at the Rockwood Theatre at the Sibaya Casino and Entertainment Kingdom – and to quote the lyrics of a song by the British rock group, Status Quo:

Here we are and here we are and here we go

All aboard and we're hitting the road

Here we go, rockin' all over the world

And I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it

And like it the small audience certainly did, joining in with the fun from the get-go. I mean there was a Conga-Line winding around the theatre within the first few songs.

Leading the merriment was a band assembled from leading Durban musicians. Dillan Kenny is on drums, Lloyd de Gier on bass, Shemuel Mahabeer on keyboard and ex Tree 63 frontman John Ellis on guitar.

Providing the vocals are Kieran Rennie (he is also the MC) from Johannesburg, Jéan Citto from Cape Town, Aimee Rain from Pretoria and two Durban girls, Christina Jenkins and Jemma Kate Badenhorst. John Ellis also weighs in with a few songs, while both he and de Gier provide back-up vocals.

This team takes the audience on a wild roller coaster ride around the world performing popular music from many countries – proving that wherever you go in the world you can find exciting, up-tempo rock music.

The tour starts in Australia with Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning followed pop princess, Kylie Minogue’s The Locomotion (the cause of the Conga-Line) and then AC/DC’s All Night Long.

Next stop was India with Mundian te bach ke by Panjabi MC and Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. This segment included some comic Bollywood dance by the cast.

A visit to Europe included songs from Sweden’s Abba and Roxette, France’s The Gypsy Kings, Norway’s A-Ha and Germany’s Boney M, while Spain’s Macarena had the audience on their feet dancing the funky dance steps.

The visit to England resulted in Police’s Every Breath You Take well performed by John Ellis, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody featuring the whole cast and Adele’s Someone Like You.

The Jamaican leg of the tour led to the highlight of the show with Jéan Citto doing Bob Marley’s One Love and Three Little Birds. Then from America we heard the music of Michael Jackson, Katie Perry, Miley Cyrus and Ricky Martin.

The tour also visits Mexico (Carlos Santana) and Colombia (Sharika) before ending in South Africa with the music of Freshly Ground, Brenda Fassie, Mandoza and PJ Powers – proving that we can stand tall in the world of rock music.

Last night, sitting for the first time on one of the balconies at this venue, I found the sound to be rather muddy and the Rockwood’s impressive lighting rig a bit static.

However, by their reaction the audience loved the show and had a good time. To borrow the lyrics from the Status Quo song again I would say that their opinion was:- I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it - I li-li-like it, li-li-like it.

A Rocking World Tour runs until November 4, 2018, at Rockwood Theatre, Sibaya, with shows at 20h00, Thursday to Saturday, and 14h00 on Sundays.

Tickets cost R99 per person (Thursday) and R130 per person (Friday to Sunday). Pensioners get 50% off the ticket price on Sundays and children under 12 enter for free. Bookings at the Sibaya Box office, at www.rockwoodtheatre.co.za. or call 0311610000.

For more information visit www.suninternational.com or follow Sibaya on www.facebook.com/yoursibaya or on Twitter @SibayaCasino – Keith Millar

FOM: THE PIANO QUARTET

Friends of Music’s next concert will take place on October 9 and will feature The Piano Quartet.

Featuring leading South African pianist Andrew Warburton joined by celebrated members of the KZNPO strings, they will offer a rarely-heard programme of great piano quartets from the 18th and 19th centuries. Performing with Warburton will be Violeta Osorhean (violin); David Snaith (viola) and Aristide du Plessis (cello).

 (Andrew Warburton, Violeta Osorhean, David Snaith & Aristide du Plessis)

Warburton is acknowledged as one of the finest solo pianists and accompanists in South Africa. He is presently Lecturer in Piano, Director of the Opera School and Choral Academy, and head of Western Classical Performance Studies at the UKZN School of Music.

Violeta Osorhean was born in Timisoara, Romania. After her university studies she played for eight years in the National Opera Orchestra - Cluj Napoca, then joined the Transylvania Philharmonic Orchestra and toured Europe, Japan and the USA. She is currently the Associate Concert Master for the KZN Philharmonic.

David Snaith was born in England. He held Principal Viola positions with The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The Welsh National Opera, The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The National Opera of Belgium, and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. He was appointed Principal Viola of The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic in 2009.

Aristide du Plessis was born in Durban in 1989. He has established a reputation as one of South Africa’s leading cellists, both as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist he has performed since the age of 15 with all South Africa’s leading orchestras. A graduate of the University of Cape Town, he furthered his studies at the Zürich University of the Arts. Since his return to South Africa in April 2015, he has been the Co-Principal Cellist with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.

The programme will include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Quartet no. 1 in G minor, K.V.478; Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Quartet no. 1 in D major Op.23, and Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet no. 1 in C minor, Op.15.

Prelude Performers for the evening will be Weien Amy Luo (10) and Xizhi Aiden Luo (7).

Amy started playing violin at the age of 8 with Violeta Osorhean. In less than 2 years, she has passed her ABRSM Grade 3 and Grade 5 violin exams with distinctions. She has played piano concertos with the KZNPO every year since she was five years old. Amy is also does well in sports and enjoys all sorts of other school activities.

 ( Xizhi Aiden Luo & Weien Amy Luo)

 Aiden started the violin lessons with Violeta Osorhean a year ago and has thrived since then. He played with the KZNPO in the Michael House Festival this year. Aiden passed his ABRSM grade 2 violin exam with distinction in May this year. Besides the violin, he is also proficient in piano and has been a regular player with the KZNPO since he was four years old. He loves reading and is an active swimmer.

The concert takes place at 19h30 on October 9, 2018, at the Durban Jewish Centre, 44 KE Masinga (Old Fort) Road, Durban. Tickets available at the door R120 (R100 FOM Members)

WILLIAM CHARLTON-PERKINS CLASSICAL NOTES

(William Charlton-Perkins. Pic by Clinton Marius)

Baroque 2000 to perform in memory of Simon Milliken

The next Baroque 2000 concert in Durban will exceptionally be at St Mary’s Anglican Church in Greyville, on Sunday October 7, 2018, at 15h00 in memory of double-bass player Simon Milliken, a dedicated musician and passionate nature lover. A founder member of the Baroque 2000 ensemble back in 1998, Simon was brutally murdered on Friday August 31 while on a bird-watching hike in Durban’s Burman Bush nature reserve.

(Simon Milliken. Pic by Michel Schneuwly)

The concert programme is entitled Nature and Birds and will include the Church’s Bell-Ringers, a group of which Simon was an active member. It will be followed by the moving Carillon des Morts by Michel Corrette. Evelien Ballantine will be the solo flautist of Vivaldi’s concerto Il Gardellino (“The Goldfinch”), and the Ensemble’s Concertmaster, violinist Ralitza Macheva, will perform the “Spring” Concerto from the Four Seasons by the same composer. She will also perform the moving Les Pleurs by Marin Marais.

Cape Town soprano Elsabé Richter will join in the programme with her glorious voice and perform the beautiful and acrobatic Sweet Bird Aria from Handel’s Pastoral Ode, L’Allegro, Il Penseroso ed Il Moderato, as well as Pourquoy Doux Rossignols by De Bousset. The famous Les Elemens by Jean-Féry Rebel will take the audience on an epic journey through earth, fire, wind, water, lighting and storms, featuring flutes, oboes, bassoon and some percussion.

Tickets R150 at the door. There is ample parking around the church and car guards will be on site. For more information, call Michel on 082 303 5241 or email sursouth@iafrica.com - William Charlton-Perkins

BOUNDARIES

(Pic by Val Adamson Photography)

Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Drama and Production Studies Department presents the Annual Dance Production, a season of contemporary dance entitled Boundaries, directed by Mdu Mtshali coming to the Courtyard Theatre from October 3 to 5, 2018.

“The Boundaries season of contemporary dance, addresses issues of high unemployment rates, inequality, land ownership and poverty,” explains Mtshali. “Nelson Mandela's electoral victory in 1994 signified the end of apartheid in South Africa, a system of widespread racially-based segregation which enforced almost complete separation of different races in South Africa.

“Under the apartheid system, South Africans were classified into four different races: White, Black, Coloured, and Indian. While the end of apartheid allowed equal rights for all South Africans regardless of race, modern-day South Africa struggled to correct the social inequalities created by decades of oppression. Many of the inequalities created and enforced by apartheid still remain in South Africa today. South Africa currently faces high unemployment rates of 26.7 percent as recorded in the first quarter of 2018. More frightening is the increase in youth unemployment to 52.40 percent from 51.10 percent in the last quarter of 2017.

“Government corruption is an endemic problem. Violent crime has not been tamed. The HIV/AIDS rates are among the highest in the world. Squatter communities just keep expanding, and millions of poor blacks have seen little or no improvement in their lives as the country marks 24 years since the end of apartheid. This production identifies an opportunity to the fight against unemployment, poverty, inequality and the lack of land ownership by black South Africans by using dance, song and movement” he says.

Boundaries involves all second-year and third-year Theatre Dance specialists, and showcases new works by Durban based choreographers: Mdu Mtshali and Tshediso Kabulu.

Boundaries runs from October 3 to 5 nightly at 19h00 in DUT’s Courtyard Theatre, Mansfield / Steve Biko Road. Entrance R20. More information from Lebohang Sibisi on 031 373 2194.