NEW MUSIC INDABA 2008
Breaking the Mould: A Centenary Celebration for Olivier Messiaen and Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa + the 80th Anniversary of Stockhausen's Birth

• Chair
  Cameron Harris
  
• Induna
  Michael Blake
  
• Press
  Clare Loveday
  
• Catering
  Christine Lucia
  
• Composer Liaison
  Fiona Tozer
  

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MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL COMMITTEE

The New Music Indaba, South Africa's premier forum for cutting edge music, once again brings leading performers from the international New Music scene to Gauteng to mix it with South Africa's best. We introduce some of the latest work from Europe and North America as we continue to explore our homegrown music. This year we mark the centenaries of two composers from opposite ends of the world, both united by a desire to break out of the mould. The work of French 20th century master, Olivier Messiaen, who shaped a whole generation of European composers, and the SeSotho choral giant, Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa, whose powerful influence on the Southern Africa choral tradition remains undimmed, are variously explored in performances of the Messiaen's now classic Quartet for the End of Time, as well as works for violin and piano, and a reassessment in the form of new compositions by eight South African composers, and performances of fourteen of Mohapeloa's choral works, preceded by a centenary lecture and forum discussion.

New music from the UK and countries that have not featured on the Indaba before — the Faroe Islands and Canada — and a rare performance of Mantra, by the 20th century's electronic music guru, Karlheinz Stockhausen, completes the programme of concerts and workshops in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Jump on board for this year's sonic journey!

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Clockwise, from top left: Jill Richards, Lisa Joubert and KEMUS Ensemble perform Stockhausen's Mantra The Chamber Music Company performs Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time Ólavur Jakobsen and Helen Vosloo in concert at Wits Cantus Africana performs the works of Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa Christine Lucia presents the J P Mohapeloa Centenary Lecture J P Mohapeloa forum One of the pianos used to perform Stockhausen's Mantra Jill Richards and Waldo Alexander perform Olivier Messiaen's Fantaisie Photographs by Michael Blake.

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NEW MUSIC INDABA 2008

The 2008 New Music Indaba is a combination of concerts by high-level professional ensembles including music especially commissioned from South African composers and masterclasses for young composers.

This year the Indaba features specialist new music group The Chamber Music Company from London, directed by Mark Troop and we are also delighted to have several esteemed international composers in residence for the workshops including Robert Fokkens (South Africa/UK), Ramon Anthin (Sweden) and Kristian Blak (Faroe Islands).

On Saturday 6th September the Chamber Music Company will give a concert at Wits celebrating Olivier Messiaen's centenary in a uniquely South African way — Quartet for the End of Time will be brought into relief by the première of a series of South African pieces written in response to the work and which follow the changing instrumentation of its eight movements. Jill Richards and Waldo Alexander also pay a concert tribute to Messiaen in the Indaba.

We mark not only Messiaen's centenary this year but also that of South African choral composer Joshua Mohapeloa with a concert of choral music directed by Mokale Koapeng on Sunday 7th September at Holy Trinity Church in Johannesburg. This concert is preceded by a lecture and forum on the composer led by Christine Lucia at Wits.

The Kemus Ensemble of Stellenbosch team up with pianists Jill Richards and Liza Joubert at ZK Matthews Hall, Unisa on Sunday 7th September to provide us with a rare chance to hear Mantra live. This concert celebrates the life of Karlheinz Stockhausen who died recently and who would have been 80 this year.

The Indaba also has a Nordic flavour due to NewMusicSA's exchange project with the ISCM section of the Faroe Islands. Faroese guitarist Ólavur Jakobsen will play a lunchtime concert in Pretoria featuring works by Sunlief Rasmusan, Indaba composer in residence Kristian Blak and a host of other Nordic pieces.

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Clockwise, from top left: Mark Troop and Rebecca Hewes of the Chamber Music Company Robert Fokkens and Rebecca Hewes Five composers David Sprong and the Chamber Music Company Kristian Blak and Ólavur Jakobsen Ramon Anthin and Mark Troop Theriso and Michael Blake Christo, Mark Troop and Fiona Tozer Photographs by Michael Blake.

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SPONSORS & COLLABORATORS

NewMusicSA acknowledges the kind support of:

• Pro Helvetia Cape Town - Swiss Arts Council
• Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC
• Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec
• Canadian Embassy
• Distell Foundation for the Performing Arts
• SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts
• Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology, UNISA
• UNISA Music Foundation
• Wits University Faculty and Graduate School of Humanities
• Classic FM

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COMPOSERS & PERFORMERS

Composers and performers featured in concerts, workshops and masterclasses include:

Composers

• Ramon Anthin (SE) (bio)
• Kari Baek (FO)
• Kristian Blak (FO) (bio)
• Michael Blake (ZA) info (bio)
• Tróndur Bogason (FO)
• Jürgen Bräuninger (DE/ZA) info (bio)
• James Clarke (GB) (bio)
• Edvard Nyholm Debess (FO)
• Robert Fokkens (ZA) info
• Paul Frehner (CA)
• Paul Hanmer (ZA) (bio)
• Cameron Harris (GB/ZA) (bio)
• Hendrik Hofmeyr (ZA) info
• Tom Ingoldsby (GB) (bio)
• Mauricio Kagel (AR)
• Mokale Koapeng (ZA) (bio)
• Jean Lesage (CA)
• Clare Loveday (ZA) (bio)
• Bruno Mantovani (CA)
• David Matthews (GB) (bio)
• Edward McGuire (GB) (bio)
• Olivier Messiaen (FR) info
• Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa (ZA) (bio)
• Christina Viola Oorebeek (US/NL) info (bio)
• Atli K Petersen (FO) (bio)
• Nishlyn Ramanna (ZA) (bio)
• Sunleif Rasmussen (FO) (bio)
• Silvestre Revueltas (MX) (bio)
• Karlheinz Stockhausen (DE) info
• Jógvan Waagstein (FO) (bio)

Performers

• Waldo Alexander (ZA) (bio)
• Cantus Africana Chamber Choir (ZA) (bio)
• The Chamber Music Company (GB) info (bio)
• Ólavur Jakobsen (FO) info (bio)
• Lisa Joubert (ZA)
• KEMUS Ensemble (ZA) (bio)
• Jill Richards (ZA) info (bio)
• Trio Fibonacci (CA) info (bio)
• Helen Vosloo (ZA) (bio)

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NEW MUSIC INDABA 2008, CAPITAL ARTS FESTIVAL AND THE JOHANNESBURG MUSICAL SOCIETY WELCOMES TRIO FIBONACCI

Canada's Trio Fibonacci (named after the celebrated thirteenth century mathematician whose theories and discoveries so much influenced artistic creation over the centuries) was formed in 1998 and is today recognised as one of the only piano trios that can perform cutting edge contemporary music alongside masterpieces of earlier eras with equal brilliance.

Recently the trio has performed at the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels where they gave the world première of Trauben by Enno Poppe, at the Transit Festival in Belgium where they premièred Silver Silence by Nicolaus Huber, and at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival where they gave the première of Possession du condamné by Michael Finnissy. Continuing their commitment to the next generation of musicians and composers the Trio Fibonacci has given workshops and master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, at Oxford University, at National Conservatories in China, at the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, and at universities in Japan, Brazil, Canada and Sweden. For further information, see www.triofibonacci.com.

For its first tour in South Africa the Trio Fibonacci will be presenting a selection of its repertoire, featuring several masterpieces for piano trio of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as works dedicated to the group by living Canadian composers.

Reviews:

"The Trio Fibonacci interpreted the very long opus 8 by Brahms with the romantic passion and internal depth of a long-standing ensemble. Playing alone, the prodigious violinist Julie-Anne Derome multiplied the effects in In Nomine by Pascal Dusapin."
- Claude Gingras, La Presse (Montreal)

"There aren't many permanent piano trios who make a speciality of contemporary music, but the Fibonacci have already carved out their own niche, and shown their sympathy for a wide range of contemporary composers … The Fibonacci's performance was muscular and appropriately dramatic"
- Andrew Clements, The Guardian

"The Beethoven [Archduke Trio] received an energetic reading full of contrasts …"
- Claude Gingras, La Presse (Montreal)

"The interpretation was of the highest level … what immense structural understanding they have … The Trio Fibonacci played these pieces with precision and was gripping"
- Jürgen Otten, Frankfurter Allgemeine

"The fiercely committed performances of Trio Fibonacci were recorded in the presence of the composer. It would be hard to imagine more authoritative or virtuosic accounts of these works"
- Steve Lomas, The Classical Source (UK)

You can see Trio Fibonacci in concert at the following events:

NewMusicSA New Music Indaba 2008

• Wednesday, 3 September at 09h30 - 11h30: Masterclass
  Venue: UNISA, Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology (off Walker St), Sunnyside, Pretoria
• Wednesday 3 September at 18h00: New music from Canada, South Africa and Argentina
  Venue: UNISA, Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology (off Walker St), Sunnyside, Pretoria
• Friday 5 September at 12h30: New Canadian classics
  Venue: UNISA, Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology (off Walker St), Sunnyside, Pretoria

Tickets available at the door or call 084 020-5465 for advance booking

Capital Arts Festival

• Thursday 4 September at 20:00
  Venue: Rendezvous Theatre, State Theatre, 320 Pretorius St, Pretoria
• Saturday 6 September at 20:00
  Venue: Rendezvous Theatre, State Theatre, 320 Pretorius St, Pretoria
• Sunday 7 September at 11:00
  Venue: Rendezvous Theatre, State Theatre, 320 Pretorius St, Pretoria

Repertoire: Ludwig von Beethoven: Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 97 ('Archduke'); Jean Lesage: The Mozart Project; Dmitry Shostakovich: Piano Trio No 2 in E Minor, Opus 67

Bookings through Computicket outlets or at www.computicket.com

Johannesburg Musical Society

• Saturday 13 September at 20:00
  Venue: Linder Auditorium, St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg

Repertoire: Ludwig von Beethoven: Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 97 ('Archduke'); Jean Lesage: The Mozart Project; Dmitry Shostakovich: Piano Trio No 2 in E Minor, Opus 67

Bookings through Computicket outlets or at www.computicket.com

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NEW MUSIC INDABA 2008 PROUDLY PRESENTS THE CHAMBER MUSIC COMPANY FROM LONDON

The Chamber Music Company, founded by Mark Troop in 1986, will be giving masterclasses and performing concerts throughout the 2008 New Music Indaba in Pretoria and Johannesburg. The group has made its name as one of the most innovative and imaginative groups in the UK.

Initially a piano trio plus singer Patricia Rozario, CMC is both vocal and instrumental, adding not only different instrumentalists where appropriate, but in seeking new performance styles for classical music. CMC gives straight classical concerts but also music theatre and cabaret, discovers both Old and New music, fuses ethnic and classical. We have explored Tango in terms of modern Argentine music and charted parallels between war-torn Mexico and Northern Ireland. Much of our recent work has been contemporary, framed by imaginative excursions into the past and sideways into other cultures — Second Glance (New Music), The Latin American Roadshow (a multi-genre celebration), The CMC Rare Music Series (rediscovery), and Deconstructing The Trout (updating tradition).

CMC believes that standard and contemporary repertoire are part of the same living tradition, and that both have their future within the overall perspective of world music traditions. CMC draws connections between disparate music styles, integrating them into coherent performance. We are passionate about new music and aim to commission repertoire, not premières.

www.chambermusiccompany.com

Mark Troop
Piano

Mark Troop, pianist, broadcaster and writer, is the founder of The Chamber Music Company; a group devoted to creative performance of all types of music. Festival appearances: City of London, Warwick, and Norfolk and Norwich; Mark Troop with cellist Matthew Barley founded the CMC Summer Solstice, bringing together Classical and Jazz in a unique set up, creating "The Ronnie Scotts of Classical Music" (The Guardian).

For BBC Radio 3 Mark Troop & CMC created a special three-part Latin American series relating the history and literature of Latin America to its music.

Mark Troop has set up several British Council tours, to India (three times), Spain (twice) and Latin America, including concerts and educational work.

Mark Troop has created two new London based events: the CMC Rare Music Series, which explores neglected Classical repertory, and The Latin American Roadshow, a new multi-arts Festival dedicated to the culture of Latin America.

In spring 2006 he inaugurated his new Second Glance Festival in London, bringing four concerts of selected new music to a wider audience. The festival ran again in 2007 and will expand this year to include a linked 3 week tour of South Africa.

Future events include a third Latin American Roadshow, a new interactive festival — The Far East Roadshow — inaugurating at Asia House in spring 2009, a special Chinese one day festival Inspired by China to be featured in the China Now Festival 2008, his cabaret show I'm a Stranger Here Myself currently touring Germany since being on the Edinburgh Fringe. In development: Jean-Henri Blumen's The Dream Peddler; China's greatest love story — Yang Guifei; Shanghai Cabaret

Mark Troop taught at the Guildhall School of Music for two decades, and still teaches at Dartington International Summer School and St Paul's Boys' School. As a writer he has been published in Musical Opinion, Piano and Musical Performance.

Natalie Harris
Clarinet

Natalie was born in Woking in 1982. She studied at Chethams School of Music between 1999 and 2001 and then at the Royal College of Music as a Scholar, graduating in 2005 with a First Class Honours Degree. Natalie completed her third year as an exchange student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia. Her principal teachers were Janet Hilton and Timothy Lines.

Whilst at RCM, Natalie won the Stephen Trier Award for Bass Clarinet and was the recipient of a Jellineck Award from Guildford Symphony Orchestra. In Australia, she performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and became a casual player with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

In 2007, Natalie became a deputy for the West End Show, Mary Poppins and now performs regularly with the English National Ballet Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Earlier this year, Natalie gave a solo recital at St. Martin-in-the-fields, London.

Rebecca Hewes
Cello

Rebecca has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in concerts throughout Europe, working alongside some of the world's leading musicians and conductors.

Born in 1983, she grew up in Lincolnshire, and at the age of eleven was awarded a place at Chetham's School of Music. She then studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2005 with first-class honours and a graduation prize.

Rebecca has appeared in numerous major chamber music festivals and concert series' throughout the UK, and has performed at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, St. John's Smith Square, Bridgewater Hall.

Alongside her duo partner, Russell Hepplewhite, she is a featured artist for the Concordia Foundation International Concert Series, and has performed at many concert venues across the country, in addition to performances in Poland and Portugal last year.

Also an experienced Baroque Cellist, she has performed with several period instrument orchestras, including the Beckett Ensemble with Trevor Pinnock.

As a soloist Rebecca has performed all of the major Cello Concerto works throughout England, and has undertaken concerto tours of Ireland, France, and Spain. Rebecca is also the cellist of the Nephele Ensemble, with upcoming concerts in the Leeds International Concert Series and at St. David's Hall, Cardiff.

Rebecca's future solo engagements include performances of the Dvorak, Haydn and Lutoslawski Cello Concertos.

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Clockwise, from top left: Choral Workshop participants Chamber Music Company Workshop Composers Workshop Joseph with a camera at the Choral Workshop Composers Workshop The Chamber Music Company at the Young Composers Workshop Fiona Tozer at the Choral Workshop Ramon Anthin delivers a presentation Photographs by Michael Blake.

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MORE INFORMATION

For more information and booking for the Indaba concerts, or if you would like to participate in the masterclasses/workshops, please contact Cameron Harris:

• E-mail:
• Phone: 084 020-5465

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COMPOSERS' WORKSHOP INVITATION

Composers who would like to participate in the Indaba workshops should kindly download the following PDF documents:

• Composers' Invitation Letter (253 KB)
• Composers' Application Form (246 KB)

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OUR THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR HELP AND ADVICE…

• Paul Hanmer
• George King and our colleagues in the Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology at UNISA
• Grant Olwage and WSOA
• Cathy Pisanti and Wits PAA
• Mercia van Wijk
• The Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media

For help with obtaining crotales for the performance of Mantra, Jill Richards and Lisa Joubert would like to thank:

• Suzette Lombard
• Mathilda Hornsveld
• Marie-Louise du Plessis

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Clockwise, from top left: Paul Hanmer, Angie and Ramon Anthin in a car Ramon Anthin and Cameron Harris Ramon Anthin rests on some steps The Chamber Music Company rehearsing in Michael Blake's office George King and Paul Hanmer perform domestic duties Dinner Mark Troop and Chamber Music Company ladies in black Group photo Photographs by Michael Blake.

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PROGRAMME

Full notes on performers, composers, and works will be available at Indaba events.

Programmes and artists subject to change.

Booking: Tickets available at the door or call 084 020-5465 for advance booking.

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Day 1
Monday 1 September

MEET THE COMPOSERS

9h30 | UNISA AHVAM Seminar Room | 2 hrs

The composers introduce their music.

FAROESE NEW MUSIC FOR SOLO GUITAR

12h30 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery

COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 1

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 2 hrs

Composition faculty:

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Day 2
Tuesday 2 September

GUITAR MASTERCLASS

9h30 | UNISA AHVAM Seminar Room | 2 hrs

COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 2

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 2 hrs

Composition faculty:

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Day 3
Wednesday 3 September

PIANO TRIO WORKSHOP

9h30 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 2 hrs

COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 3

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 2 hrs

Composition faculty:

NEW MUSIC FROM CANADA, SOUTH AFRICA & ARGENTINA

18h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery

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Day 4
Thursday 4 September

CHORAL CONDUCTING WORKSHOP 1

10h00 | UNISA AHVAM Seminar Room | 2 hrs

CHORAL CONDUCTING WORKSHOP 2

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Seminar Room | 2 hrs

COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 4

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 2 hrs

Composition faculty:

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Day 5
Friday 5 September

NEW CANADIAN CLASSICS

12h30 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery

COMPOSERS MASTERCLASS 4

14h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery | 1 hr

Composition faculty:

THE WEEK THAT WAS…

17h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery

The first public performances of works created at the workshops during the New Music Indaba. A separate programme will be available.

RESIDENT ARTISTS IN CONCERT

18h00 | UNISA AHVAM Gallery

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Day 6
Saturday 6 September

MESSIAEN & BEYOND

11h00 | Atrium, Wits University

KINGO HYMNS AND UHADI BOW SONGS

13h00 | Amphitheatre, Wits University

MESSIAEN CENTENARY CONCERT

15h00 | Atrium, Wits University

Quartet for the Beginning of the Concert:
Seven South African Composers Salute Olivier Messiaen

Quartet for the End of Time

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Day 7
Sunday 7 September

J P MOHAPELOA CENTENARY LECTURE: "BREAKING THE MOULD"

11h00 | Atrium, Wits University | 45 mins

FORUM: "J P MOHAPELOA"

11h45 | Atrium, Wits University | 1 hr 30 mins

J P MOHAPELOA CENTENARY CONCERT

14h00 | Holy Trinity Church, Braamfontein

ILLUSTRATED INTRODUCTION TO STOCKHAUSEN'S MANTRA

17h00 | Z K Matthews Great Hall, UNISA

STOCKHAUSEN 80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

18h00 | Z K Matthews Great Hall, UNISA

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BIOGRAPHIES

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Waldo Alexander

Waldo Alexander has been playing the violin since the age of seven, and has enjoyed a versatile and exciting career, both in the classical and contemporary fields of music.

In 2002 he was a founding member of the Sontonga Quartet, which toured extensively both locally and internationally. The quartet was fortunate to work and collaborate with many prominent South African and international artists, and provided a means for local composers to have their works performed regularly, locally as well as abroad. Having a great appreciation for the value and significance of South African classical music, Waldo continues to work with local composers and musicians. Whilst having enjoyed a very fortunate and active career within the classical domain of music, he also extends his efforts towards other popular styles, from pop and rock n' roll to jazz, trance and hip hop. These explorations have led to several collaborations with some of South Africa's most prominent artists and bands, including Karen Zoid, Vicky Sampson and Taxi Violence, to name but a few. Waldo Alexander holds a BMus degree from the University of Cape Town, and is currently enrolled in a Master's degree in chamber music and solo performance at the same institution. He plays on a fine Italian violin, which is on generous loan from the Lindbergh Arts Foundation.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Ramon Anthin

Ramon Anthin was born in Gothenburg, grew up as a child in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and as a teenager on the island of Hönö on the west coast of Sweden. Since 1991 he lives and works in Gotland and is currently the director of Visby International Centre for Composers. He undertook university studies in theoretical philosophy, history of literature with poetic theory, Scandinavian languages, pedagogy with methodology, and music, including studies in composition and conducting. Ramon Anthin is a member of the executive committee of the ISCM, and one of three artistic directors of the 2009 World Music Days in Sweden.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Kristian Blak

Kristian Blak, composer and performer, is involved in a wide range of musical activities. Based in the Faroe Islands, he composes for international classical ensembles, performs locally and tours internationally as a musician and band leader with jazz, folk and world music groups. Kristian Blak's music cover many genres, and in addition to Faroese musicians, Blak often works with international artists and ensembles such as the Moyzes Quartet, John Tchicai, Anders Jormin and Rasmus Lyberth. He has a central role in the musical life and organizations in the Faroe Islands.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Kari Baek

Kari Baek — biographical information unavailable.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Michael Blake

Michael Blake holds degrees from Wits (BMus) and Rhodes Universities (PhD) in South Africa and Goldsmiths College London (MMus). He was based in London from 1977-1997, where he founded and directed the ensemble London New Music and worked as a freelance composer and pianist. After returning to South Africa in 1998 he taught composition at Rhodes University, founded the ISCM South African Section and established the annual New Music Indaba in Grahamstown which he directed from 2000-2006. His output, more than 100 compositions to date, includes an opera, orchestral and chamber music, piano and other keyboard music, choral music, multimedia pieces and film music. Let us run out of the rain is performed regularly by percussion quartets and piano duos throughout the world, and was recorded by Ensemble Bash and released on CD in 2002; String Quartet No 1 (In Memory of William Burton) was premiered and toured internationally by the Fitzwilliam Quartet in his fiftieth birthday year; and he premiered his Quintet for Piano and Strings (Homage to Schumann) with the same ensemble in 2006. His Piano Concerto (Rain Dancing) was premiered by Jill Richards with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Rural Arias for singing saw ensemble by Ensemble Reconsil, Vienna, both in October 2007. His recently completed Piano Sonata (Choral) was premiered by Daan Vandewalle in Gent in July. Jill Richards' CD recording of his complete piano music will be released in September this year. Michael Blake lives in Johannesburg and lectures at the University of South Africa.

www.michaelblake.co.za

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Jürgen Bräuninger

Jürgen Bräuninger studied in Stuttgart with Ulrich Süsse and Erhard Karkoschka and at San Jose State University with Allen Strange and Dan Wyman. He has been lecturing in composition and music technology at the University of KwZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa since 1985. Besides many works for various ensembles/soloists and electronic media (some in collaboration with Matthew Brubeck, Sazi Dlamini, Feya Faku, Ulrich Süsse, and Dan Wyman as well as poet Ari Sitas), he has also contributed to film scores (e.g. The Lawnmower Man) and a number of Jay Pather's Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre productions (A South African Siddhartha and Ahimsa Ubuntu, among others).

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Cantus Africana

Cantus Africana is a recently-formed 16-voice chamber choir boasting several champion soloists and graduates of various universities in Gauteng. The choir's repertoire is made up of works by old and new South African composers.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

The Chamber Music Company

The Chamber Music Company, founded by Mark Troop in 1986, has made its name as one of the most innovative and imaginative groups in the UK. Initially a piano trio plus singer Patricia Rozario, CMC is both vocal and instrumental, adding not only different instrumentalists where appropriate, but in seeking new performance styles for classical music. CMC gives straight classical concerts but also music theatre & cabaret, discovers both Old and New music, fuses ethnic and classical. We have explored Tango in terms of modern Argentine music and charted parallels between war-torn Mexico and Northern Ireland. Much of our recent work has been contemporary, framed by imaginative excursions into the past and sideways into other cultures — Second Glance (New Music), The Latin American Roadshow (a multi-genre celebration), The CMC Rare Music Series (rediscovery), and Deconstructing The Trout (updating tradition). CMC believes that standard and contemporary repertoire are part of the same living tradition, and that both have their future within the overall perspective of world music traditions. CMC draws connections between disparate music styles, integrating them into coherent performance. We are passionate about new music and aim to commission repertoire, not premieres.

www.chambermusiccompany.com

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

James Clarke

James Clarke was born in London, and after studying at Southampton University and City University, London he was awarded a Finnish Government Scholarship to study composition with Usko Meriläinen in Helsinki. In 1979 he co-founded the influential London-based new music group, Suoraan, but for much of his career his work has attracted most attention beyond the British Isles, including significant performances at the International Gaudeamus Music Week and the ISCM World Music Days. At the 1992 Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik he was awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for composition. From 1994 to 1997 James Clarke was Composer-in-Residence at Queen's University, Belfast, where, as artistic director of the Sonorities Festival of new music, his programmes were notable for their advocacy of recent music from the rest of Europe. Clarke's own aesthetic is far closer to this music than to prevailing fashions in metropolitan English new music. He argues that 'it is not the role of new art gently to massage the ears' and his work is indeed often aurally abrasive, pushing instruments to timbral extremes. Dualities abound: ensembles split apart to form opposing factions; forms often divide, the second part sometimes — as in La violenza delle idee (1991) — a fractured attempt to recreate the first, sometimes — as in Independence (1988) — a distillation of the first. Early works evolve from silence by a process of accretion in which the music assembles its history before our ears; in Broken (1988) and subsequent works the fundamental metaphor is that of decomposition, the creative process leaving its trace on a body of possible material like acid biting into an etching plate.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Edvard Nyholm Debess

Edvard Nyholm Debess — biographical information unavailable.

[ up to: Composers & Performers | Biographies ]

Robert Fokkens

Robert Fokkens is a South African composer based in London. His music has been performed in many major venues in the UK including the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Purcell Room, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Riverside Studios, the Warehouse, Oxford's Holywell Music Room, and the Battersea Arts Centre; and at festivals including the Spitalfields Festival, the Park Lane Group New Year Series, the Fresh Festival at the South Bank Centre, the Almeida Festival, the Buxton Festival and Tête-à-tête Opera's The Opera Festival. His music is also heard frequently in South Africa, and has been performed in Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, the USA and Japan, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His music has been published in the journal The Liberal and recorded on the Herald label by the Oxford-based choir Commotio. Robert studied at the University of Cape Town and the Royal Academy of Music, holding the Manson Fellowship at the RAM after completing all of his degrees with distinction. During this time he worked with many composers including George Crumb, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Ades, Simon Bainbridge, Poul Ruders, Dominic Muldowney and Mauricio Kagel. He has recently completed his PhD at the University of Southampton, where he was supervised by Michael Finnissy. Throughout his studies, Robert was generously supported by a number of prizes and scholarships, including a Countess of Munster Musical Trust bursary, the South African Music Rights Organisation Overseas Scholarship, a National Arts Council of South Africa award, an Overseas Research Scheme scholarship, and a bursary awarded by the Royal Academy of Music. His doctoral studies were also supported by a University of Southampton Major Studentship.

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Paul Hanmer

Paul Hanmer was born in Cape Town and his musical interest started at an early age. In the early 1970s, he began classical piano and theory lessons. After three years at the University of Cape Town, studying for a B.Mus degree, Paul started working in a variety of fields. He performed with Top-40 bands, did jazz standards and played with many original bands. He was involved in backing various cabaret acts and played in musicals as well as the theatre circuit. As well as being a recording artist and session pianist, he enjoys working as a composer and an arranger. He loves to work with other composers who have a distinctive South African voice and are proud of it.With his love for collaborative work, Paul has recorded with the likes of Tananas, Miriam Makeba, Ray Phiri, McCoy Mrubata and Unofficial Language. He also formed part of and toured with Tony Cox's Cool Friction and recently collaborated with Pops Mohamed, for a "Main Stage" production at the Grahamstown Festival.

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Cameron Harris

Cameron Harris studied composition with Nigel Osborne and John Casken in the UK and with James Primosch and Jay Reise in Philadelphia. In 2004 he won the David Halsted Music Prize for musical composition and the Network for New Music composition contest for his violin and piano piece Elegy. The Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers' Forum also selected his Quintet for Woodwinds and Piano to be played by Network. His music has been read by Eighth Blackbird, The Cassett String Quartet, The Curtis Institute Orchestra, The Apollo Saxophone Quartet of Manchester and the Randlers Chamber Orchestra of Denmark. Harris is an active oboist who enjoys playing music of a wide range of styles. He has organised many concerts with a focus on combining new and older music. He presently lectures at the University of South Africa.

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Tom Ingoldsby

Tom Ingoldsby's music owes its immediacy and accessibility to a combination of engaging rhythmic complexity with a superb ear for instrumental colour and a long-breathed lyricism. A "late arriver" to classical music, Tom's musical origins lie in rock and roll, and he lists artists from the Beatles to King Crimson as major influences on his life. After playing guitar in a few semi-successful rock bands, he began composing short pieces for piano, one of which won a Music Canada award. He studied composition with Boyd McDonald and Mariano Etkin, obtained his Master's at the State University of New York, Buffalo, working for two years with Morton Feldman and spent three years at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Donald Erb. Lamentations and Celebrations, his concerto for percussion ensemble and orchestra, won the 2 Agosto competition in Bologna in 1998. In March 1998 the Kreutzer String Quartet premièred his first String Quartet in Cyprus. Tom's Fanfare 'from the back of beyond' was given its first performance by the London Sinfonietta in April 2000, described by The Guardian as "a bubbling array of rhythmic figures that got form and content just about in balance." Wave Etchings, a Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was given its UK première by Rolf Hind and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and broadcast in Hear and Now on BBC Radio 3. His first Sonata for Piano was commissioned and premièred by Clive Williamson in 2003 and a third sonata will appear in 2006. After the Eulogy was joint winner of both jury and critics prize in the 2002 UK/Eire Composition Competition. Dances and Dirges, a chamber concerto for two pianos and 11 players, received its enthusiastic first performance at the University of Manchester in 2003. Both these works were included on the SPNM's 2002/2003 shortlist. 2005 saw the release of a CD and two premières of works for solo piano. The CD is devoted to Tom's chamber music and includes After the Eulogy, the sonata for Violin and Piano (originally premièred in 2002). His concert overture, They Once Were … has been recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra under Robert Winstin, and was released in June 2006 on the American label Masterworks of the New Era.

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Ólavur Jakobsen

Ólavur Jakobsen was born in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. Studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark with Ingolf Olsen and received his diploma exam in 1995. Further studies in Paris with French guitarist Roland Dyens, Proffessor at Conservatoire Superieur de Musique, Paris. Has participated in masterclasses with e.g. Sir Julian Bream, David Russell and Goran Sollscher. Was member of the Copenhagen based Corona Guitar Quartet, touring Europe and United States extensively as chamber musician and soloist. Has premièred a vast number of compositions by internationally acknowledged composers e.g. Per Nørgård, Pierre Dørge, Sunleif Rasmussen, Kristian Blak, Hsueh-Yung Shen, Ferdinand Weiss and Gavin Bryars. Worked with a number of popular artists as well as recording with Icelandic Ensemble CAPUT and Danish Orchestra Collegium Musicum as well as arranging and producing. He is co-founder of the Faroese chamber ensemble Aldubáran.

www.olavurjakobsen.com

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Lisa Joubert

Lisa Joubert — biographical information unavailable.

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KEMUS Ensemble

The KEMUS Ensemble was founded in 1980 at the Department of Music of Stellenbosch University. The first chairman was Edward Aitchison, who held this position until his retirement in 2002. Theo Herbst's association with KEMUS dates to 1994. The improvement of the technological infrastructure at the University of Stellenbosch Music Department, combined with Herbst's own involvement in the Music Technology programme and KEMUS, have resulted in a lively contemporary music life at the Stellenbosch Conservatory.

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Mokale Koapeng

Mokale Koapeng, South African composer and choral director, is a music graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand. He has conceived a long-term project which he calls "A Hidden Cultural Picture" which aims to bring classical music of composers of African descent to the music public in South Africa, in part by incorporating it in established national choral festivals. In 1999 he held workshops on South African music at the Sibelius Academy at the University of Jyvasklya in Finland.In 2000 he was appointed as conductor of the University of Pretoria Chorale. Mokale Koapeng is also the Music Director of SDASA Chorale, drawn from the Seventh Day Adventists' Student Association. It released the CD Simunye to international acclaim in partnership with a British vocal group, I Fagiolini. "Simunye" is a Zulu word meaning 'we are one' and is the name given to a project developed by I Fagiolini and the SDASA Chorale of Soweto. It resulted in a CD and joint concert tours to South Africa, the UK, Scandinavia and Bermuda. His first opera Earthdiving was premiered at the Spier Festival, Stellenbosch in February 2003. His choral work Utlwang Lefoko La Morena was selected for performance at the ISCM World Music Days 2003 in Slovenia. From 2002 he was vice-president of NewMusicSA, and served as president from 2005-6.

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Clare Loveday

Clare Loveday graduated with a B.Mus from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1990, after which she worked as a pianist, playing in musicals and theatre venues around South Africa and on cruise ships. During this time she also worked in the advertising industry as a copywriter, jingle writer and Corporate Events musical director, and developed skills as a copy editor for post-graduate theses, academic journals and publishers. In the late 1990s Clare returned to academic life at Wits as a part-time lecturer in music theory and took up a fulltime lectureship in music theory and composition in 2004. Clare is known particularly for her works for the 'straight' saxophone, and has received several commissions for the instrument. In 2006 she was awarded a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, and in December 2007 was the recipient of month-long composer's residency at the Visby International Centre for Composers in Sweden. She is also known for her innovations in interdisciplinary work, and her collaborative work The Collision Project was chosen to represent South Africa at the 2008 International Society for Contemporary Music's World Music Days Festival.

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Christine Lucia

Christine Lucia was born in London and came to South Africa in 1974. She has worked at four university music departments and headed three: University of Durban-Westville, Rhodes, and University of the Witwatersrand (she also taught at the University of KwaZulu Natal). Much of her life in South Africa has been spent working as a teacher, piano accompanist, researcher, and writer. She edited the anthology The World of South African Music: A Reader (2005), and her research interests focus on composers, including Abdullah Ibrahim, Kevin Volans, and Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa. She was Editor of SAMUS: South African Music Studies from 2005 to 2008, and is currently working on a book on Kevin Volans and a Complete Critical Edition of J.P. Mohapeloa. She is a retired Visiting Professor at Wits.

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Edward McGuire

Edward McGuire was born in Glasgow and studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music, London (1966-70) and then with the Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm. His works have been regularly broadcast and commissions have come from the Glasgow University McEwen Bequest, the New Music Group of Scotland, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the St Magnus Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival. In recent years he has produced several large-scale works to critical acclaim: the ballet score Peter Pan, A Glasgow Symphony, a chamber opera The Loving of Etain, and concerti for guitar, trombone, viola, violin and (most recently) double bass. McGuire also plays flute with, and writes for, the Scottish folk group The Whistlebinkies. Cake Talk, a new opera in 1996 for RSNO Junior Chorus followed success of The Loving of Etain (Paragon Opera); Peter Pan (Scottish Ballet) and Cullercoats Tommy (Northern Stage). Recent CDs include Calgacus (BBCSSO), London Proms 1997; Songs of New Beginnings (Paragon); Fast Peace III (Alma Duo); Divertimento, Martyr (Durrant, Viola Pieces); Nocturnes (Mr McFall's Chamber) and Celtic Knotwork (Scottish Flute Trio and Chinook Clarinet Quartet) in 2001. His new double bass concerto was recorded by the BBC SSO with soloist Anthony Alcock in Ayr Town Hall on January 24th and Broadcasting House Glasgow on 25th January 2002. He was the recipient of a British Composers Award in 2003 and a Creative Scotland Award in 2004. He was commissioned to compose the finale for the 2006 St Magnus Festival.

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David Matthews

David Matthews was born in London and started composing at the age of sixteen. He read Classics at the University of Nottingham — which has also made him an Honorary Doctor of Music — and afterwards studied composition privately with Anthony Milner. He was also much helped by the advice and encouragement of Nicholas Maw. He spent three years as an assistant to Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh in the late 1960's. He has largely avoided teaching, but to support his composing career has done editorial work — he collaborated with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony — and orchestrations of film music. He has also written a book on the music of Michael Tippett, and has just completed a book on Britten which will be published in spring 2003. He published a lecture on the relation of music to painting, Landscape into Sound, and reviews for various journals. Matthews is Music Advisor to the English Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Deal Festival. His music is widely played in Britain and abroad, is frequently broadcast, and over a dozen of his works are available on CD. His musical language on the one hand grew out of his English background and his special concern for the music of Tippett, Britten and Maw; but it is also strongly connected to the central European tradition, back through Mahler and ultimately to Beethoven. Matthews has been much concerned with working in the great inherited forms of the past — symphony, string quartet, lately oratorio — and finding new ways of renewing them. To date he has written five symphonies and ten string quartets; also four symphonic poems — two of which; In the Dark Time and Chaconne, have recently been recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the NMC label. His numerous chamber works include commissions by the Schubert Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, Brodsky Quartet, Brindisi Quartet and many others; vocal music includes a dramatic scena, Cantiga, for soprano and orchestra, premiered at the 1988 Proms, and a large-scale Vespers for soloists, chorus and orchestra for the Huddersfield Choral Society. His recent large-scale work, Concerto in Azzurro is a cello concerto for Steven Isserlis and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and was premiered in October 2002 in Swansea with Richard Hickox.

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Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen:

www.oliviermessiaen.org

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Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa

Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa grew up and started primary education at Molumong in the Mokhotlong district. He received junior secondary education at Morija. His study for the matriculation certificate at Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape was interrupted by illness and he had to go home. At this stage, his father had moved from Molumong and was stationed at Mohalinyane in the Mohale's Hoek district. Mohapeloa harnessed his creative energies into composing and his first book of songs was published in 1937, followed by further study for a diploma in music under Professor Percival Kirby at the University of the Witwatersrand. Over a hundred of Mohapeloa's songs were published in book or pamphlet form. His music has over the years been popularly enjoyed by adult and youth choirs in concerts and competitions, as well as on radio and television. His work was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II of England, who awarded him the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). The Kingdom of Lesotho awarded him the Knighthood of the Order of Ramats'eatsana (KCOR). The National University of Lesotho also awarded him a Doctorate of Letters (D Litt). He composed the Anthem of the OAU. His works are published in tonic solfa by Morija Press and Oxford University Press.

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Christina Viola Oorebeek

Christina Viola Oorebeek is an American-Dutch citizen. She immersed herself in music as a profession at 21, teaching herself as much as possible about jazz and blues music. In this period, she went on to study classical Indian music at the school of Ravi Shankar in Los Angeles, and sang in an semi-acoustic rock band from 1967-1969 in San Francisco. She worked for a long period as a teacher and improvising pianist at the Department for Dance at the Arts College in Amsterdam. During these years, in which she earned a degree at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with pianist Willem Brons. she decided that 'making' autonomous music was the most important thread which she wanted to follow.At age 50 she commenced officially on her career as a composer studying at the Rotterdam Conservatory with Klaas de Vries. She was granted the Composition Prize upon graduation in 1999. At the Conservatory of Amsterdam, she studied instrumentation with Theo Verbey. She participated in master classes with Magnus Lindberg in Amsterdam and Toshio Hosokawa at the Akiyoshidai Music Festival in Japan. These experiences have formed a pluriform pool of musical influences and experiences for her composing work. Her ideal is to exist in a continual state of (re)discovery and invention. Christina Viola Oorebeek won a prize in the International Dutilleux Concours (1999 ) and at the Gaudeamus Young Composers Workshop in the Netherlands ( 1997 ), and was invited to teach workshops at the New Music Indaba Festival in South Africa in June, 2003 with Theo Loevendie and Kevin Volans. Her work has been played in Barcelona, the Music Factory Festival in Norway, the Feniks Festival in Antwerp, the 2002 ISCM World Music Days in Yokohama, Japan, the New Music Indaba in South Africa, in Italy, France, and the United States.

In the Netherlands, her work has been played recently in the Gaudeamus Music Theatre Festival (2004), the Festival "Live" festival for electro-acoustic music (2006), the Concertgebouw (2006), and in many other venues in the country. She has had commissions from, among others, Nieuw Ensemble, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, Ivo Janssen (piano), the Doelenensemble, Ensemble Insomnio, Calefax, Multifoon (chromatic gamelan) and Arnold Marinissen (percussion). Her recent interest in electro-acoustic music has been supported by temporary residencies at STEIM in Amsterdam, in 2002, 2004 and 2006 for: "…and god invented dice" , a semi-theatrical concert piece, "The Pitch Shifter" , her science fiction chamber opera, and "Chromotoy I - III" for various combinations of piano, toy piano, midi-toy piano, Disklavier, and live electronics.

www.christinaoorebeek.com

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Atli K Petersen

Atli K Petersen was born in Copenhagen and grew up in Tórshavn (Faroe Islands). He graduated in 1988 from Tónlistarskólinn in Reykjavík as a wind teacher. After moving back to the Faroe Islands he has been working as a teacher, musician, conductor and composer/arranger. He has composed and arranged works for wind band, brass band and big band, symphony orchestra, choir, solo instruments and various chamber music ensembles.

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Nishlyn Ramanna

Nishlyn Ramanna first became interested in jazz on hearing an album with Oscar Peterson and Joe Pass in his last years of high school. He enrolled in a BMus course in jazz at the University of Natal, Durban, where he took piano lessons with Darius Brubeck. Ramanna became a founding member of the intercultural improvisation group Mosaic — a quintet of flute, piano, guitar, bass and tabla — which drew together aspects of mainstream jazz, African music and western classical music. Many of the pieces on 'A Thought' were originally written for Mosaic. Highlights of the band's nine-year career (1991 to 1999) included performances at various classical, folk, and jazz festivals and venues in South Africa, several appearances on national television, and at functions at which Presidents Mandela and Mbeki were present. The group also performed at the 1996 International Association of Jazz Educators' Conference in Atlanta, and at the Royal Academy in London in 1998. From 2000 to 2002, whilst holding a lectureship in jazz at Rhodes University, Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, Ramanna also taught piano and performed at the annual, week-long National Youth Jazz Festival. At the festival he worked with several great South African jazz players including Barney Rachabane and Johnny Fourie. In addition to playing, Ramanna also researches South African jazz and has written several biographies of South African jazz musicians for the Grove Dictionary of Jazz and published several academic writings on aspects of South African jazz. He recently completed his PhD thesis on contemporary jazz in post-apartheid Durban and Johannesburg.

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Sunleif Rasmussen

Sunleif Rasmussen, born in Sandur in the Faroe Islands, is the foremost Faroese composer of classical music. Rasmussen studied in Norway, then returned to Tórshavn in the Faroes as music teacher and jazz pianist. From 1990 to 1995 he studied musical composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen under Ib Nørholm and electronic music under Ivar Frounberg. In 1992 he received grants from the Leonnie Sonning Foundation and the Danish Composer's Society. He also became familiar with spectral music, which has its roots at the IRCAM in Paris, and the work of composers such as Tristan Murail. Rasmussen has produced a number of works combining electronic and acoustic instruments, some produced in co-operation with DIEM (the Danish Institute for Electro-Acoustic Music). In 1997 he was awarded a three-year grant from the Danish State Arts Foundation. In 2002 he won the Nordic Council Music Prize for his Symphony no. 1 — "Oceanic Days". The NOMUS committee citation read: "…derives its inspiration from Faroese nature and from age-old Faroese hymns, from which Rasmussen has created a work of comprehensive dimensions. It radiates a natural artistic integrity, combining tightness and structure with lyric feeling." In 2004 he was visiting composer at the prestigious Korsholm Festival in Finland.

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Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas was a Mexican composer of classical music, violinist and conductor. He was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), a post he held until 1935. He and Chávez did much to promote contemporary Mexican music. It was around this time that Revueltas began to compose in earnest. He went to Spain and worked for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but upon Francisco Franco's victory, returned to Mexico to teach. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City on the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premièred. He wrote film music, chamber music, songs and a number of other works. Among his orchestral music are a number of symphonic poems with Sensemayá: Chant for the Killing of a Snake (1938), based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén, the most famous. His musical language is often tonal but more often post-tonal,reflecting a modernist approach influenced by Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others. His music is often vigorous, rhythmically vital, and frequently has a distinctly Mexican flavour. He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music, placing a sign over the piano saying Se suplica no tirarle al pianista (We beg you not to shoot at the pianist). Revueltas died of pneumonia (complicated by alcoholism) in Mexico City on October 5, 1940, at the age of 40. His remains are kept at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.

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Jill Richards

Jill Richards' passion for contemporary music started while she was a student at the University of Cape Town and has led to her being South Africa's foremost performer of new piano music today. She has long been associated with new music groups, workshops and festivals, ranging from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (broadcast by the BBC) to South African events such as the annual New Music Indaba, where she performs regularly. Her special insight into new music performance comes also from her close work with many composers (including a workshop with Russian composers in 1993, where her ensemble was the first group of South Africans to perform in post-communist Russia). Richards has had a large number of works — from solo pieces to concertos — dedicated to her, including two sets of etudes by Kevin Volans, with a third set to be completed later this year. Another dedication was "Shiva Dances" for two pianos, which was premièred by Jill and Kevin Volans at a BBC concert in London in February 2008; her collaboration with Kevin started when she performed his two-piano work Cicada (later released on CD) at his 50th Birthday concert at the South Bank, London. Jill Richards also has a close working relationship with Philip Miller, the composer of the music for artist William Kentridge's "9 Drawings For Projection" — a live film and music event that has been performed extensively in South Africa as well as in Central Park and Prospect Parks in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Commonwealth Festival in Melbourne. She has been widely broadcast, not only in South Africa and the UK, but also in the US and Europe, and has released four CDs, with the fifth to be released in 2008. Her versatility means that she is equally at home with the standard repertoire, both as soloist and chamber musician. Her piano duo partners include Kevin Volans and Michael Blake, and she has also worked with jazz composers Surendran Reddy and Denzil Weale. She includes in her extensive repertoire music from across the African continent, which she has performed worldwide. Jill Richards is a Steinway artist.

www.jillrichards.com

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Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen:

www.stockhausen.org

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Trio Fibonacci

Canada's Trio Fibonacci (named after the celebrated thirteenth century mathematician whose theories and discoveries so much influenced artistic creation over the centuries) was formed in 1998 and is today recognised as one of the only piano trios that can perform cutting edge contemporary music alongside masterpieces of earlier eras with equal brilliance. Recently the trio has performed at the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels where they gave the world première of Trauben by Enno Poppe, at the Transit Festival in Belgium where they premiered Silver Silence by Nicolaus Huber, and at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival where they gave the première of Possession du condamné by Michael Finnissy. Continuing their commitment to the next generation of musicians and composers the Trio Fibonacci has given workshops and master classes at the Royal Academy of Music in London, at Oxford University, at National Conservatories in China, at the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, and at universities in Japan, Brazil, Canada and Sweden. For its first tour in South Africa the Trio Fibonacci will be presenting a selection of its repertoire, featuring several masterpieces for piano trio of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as works dedicated to the group by living Canadian composers.

www.triofibonacci.com

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Helen Vosloo

Helen Vosloo is Principal Flute of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa and appears regularly as soloist and chamber music player. She has been the recipient of several of South Africa's top music awards, which enabled her to make extensive study tours to Europe and the USA, working with some of the world's leading flautists such as William Bennett in London and Peter Lukas Graf in Switzerland. In 2002 Helen Vosloo was engaged as a member of the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland, and while resident in Finland she also performed at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. Hendrik Hofmeyr dedicated his Flute Concerto to her and the CD was released by Distell in 2002. Vosloo ventures into the cross-over genre with the Wessel van Rensburg Jazz Piano Trio and their CD "Baroque and Blue" was nominated for a SAMA in 2005. She is a member of Trio Hemanay, with whom she has toured Europe and the USA, and recently released an album to great acclaim. Helen is a part-time flute lecture at Wits University and founded the Keiskamma Music Academy in rural Eastern Cape in 2006.

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Jógvan Waagstein

Jógvan Waagstein was born in Klaksvík on the North Island (Faeroe Islands). Educated as a school teacher he was employed by the Faeroese School for his whole life, mostly teaching at Tórshavn Public School. He was also a pioneer of Faeroese visual art, which little by little manifested itself around the beginning of the 20th century. Jógvan Waagstein was born in Klaksvík on the North Island (Faeroe Islands). Educated as a school teacher he was employed by the Faeroese School for his whole life, mostly teaching at Tórshavn Public School. He was also a pioneer of Faeroese visual art, which little by little manifested itself around the beginning of the 20th century. He was self-taught, and according to himself the little knowledge he had of painting was inspired by Mrs. Heilmann and Miss Taylor. Mrs. Flora Heilmann (1872-1944) was a Danish woman, married to the vicar in Vidareidi, and her friend, the American explorer and author, Elizabeth Taylor (1856-1932), were both painters and well known on the Faeroe Islands. Waagstein took a brief course in drawing and sketching in Copenhagen, and in 1919 he went on an educational trip to Denmark and Germany. In a large number of paintings Waagstein described the Faeroese landscape in a way nobody had done before, and he soon became a regular exhibitor in Tórshavn, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Glasgow.

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