NewMusicSA Concert Series 2021 - Concert #2
Johannesburg, South Africa50/50: Stravinsky and Taljaard
NewMusicSApresents the second event of its Digital Indaba 2021 Concert Series with a programme celebrating the anniversaries of composers Hannes Taljaard and Igor Stravinsky. A selected programme of works will be performed by Magdalena de Vries and Morné van Heerden on Sunday 4 April at the Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg.
NewMusicSA´s projects for the current year are framed under the overarching title, ‘Digital Indaba 2021’ and the theme of Connectedness. The project includes the commission of new works and calls for scores, an improvised and multi-disciplinary series, outreach community activities, workshops, and this Concert Series. Comprised of three concerts, the 2021 Concert Series celebrates some relevant music anniversaries. Each concert features the music of several composers, including a newly commissioned work.
NEWMUSICSA DIGITAL INDABA 2021: THE CONCERT SERIES
Since its early days in 2003, NewMusicSA has been holding the Indaba and Unyazi festivals annually, as a traditional 2-3 day event. Changing location every year, a regular NewMusicSA Indaba would include concerts, workshops and other activities. Due to the unpredictability of the pandemic, the organisation opted to programme separate events in different locations over a longer period of time and in a hybrid mode.
Chairperson of NewMusicSA Diale Mabitsela says: “We are certainly very pleased that, in many ways, the stars have aligned, allowing us to host a concert such as this, amid what has been a rather trying and turbulent time. And yet, as per the title of our last Bulletin, we remain stout-hearted, indeed resilient in our attempts to promote both the development and awareness of New Music throughout South Africa. Today represents the first step of a long journey leading towards a brighter and more vibrant future of thought provoking, energetic, experimental musical activities. And we take this path by giving the nod, indeed paying tribute, to those who have gone before; those, who are still with us, and those who lead the way going forward.”
In the second concert of the 2021 Series, a duo comprised by Magdalena de Vries (percussion) and Morné van Heerden (clarinet) will be playing a selection of works by Russian-born composer, Igor Stravinsky (50th anniversary of death), premiering a new work by South African composer, Hannes Taljaard (50th birthday), as well as featuring additional works by Malcolm Dedman and Jaco Meyer.
The concert will take place at contemporary fine art gallery and project space, Kalashnikovv Gallery (Braamfontein). Dedicated to providing support to both emerging and established South African artists, it was established in 2013 by cultural instigators and long term collaborators M.J Turpin and Matthew Dean Dowdle out of frustration with the current South African Contemporary Art world and by extension, the prevailing “white cube” gallery discourse.
THE COMPOSERS
Widely considered one of the most important and celebrated composers of the 20th century, the work of Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) had a revolutionary impact on musical thought and sensibility just before and after World War 1, particularly with regard to his innovative approach to harmony, rhythm and orchestration. His compositions remained a touchstone of modernism for much of his long working life. His fame rests on his collaborations with Serge Diaghilev for the Ballet Russes, including The Firebird (1910), and a few works, such as The Rite of Spring (1913) –which provoked one of the most famous first-night riots in the history of musical theatre– and The Rake’s Progress (1951).
Fascinated with jazz, particularly with ragtime, the wide influence of Stravinsky, beyond the Classical music domain, is astounding: from leading jazz composers such as Charlie Mingus, Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman, to the domain of funk, hip-hop and pop. The Infernal Dance from The Firebird is perhaps the first digital sample to become well known within popular music. This loud orchestral attack was made famous by Bronx DJ Afrika Bambaataa – who incorporated the sound into his seminal 1982 dance track, Planet Rock– and was later quoted by Michael Jackson, Prince, NWA, U2, New Order, Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, The Backstreet Boys, The Smiths, Jennifer Lopez, and many others.
Born in Venda in the same year that Stravinsky passed away, Hannes Taljaard is a South African composer of mostly chamber, choral, vocal, and piano works that have been performed in Africa and Europe. His formal music education included studying recorder, piano and organ, as well as music theory and composition in Potchefstroom (South Africa). Many journeys to Europe, and later to North and South America, shaped his creative work and activities as music educator. After teaching for more than 25 years at the North-West University in Potchefstroom his interest in embodied cognition took him to Vienna in order to study music and movement (Rhythmik).
Commissioned by NewMusicSA, his new composition Cool as the Shade is my Soul. Five Faces with Masks for Clarinet and Percussion will be premiered at this concert. Taljaard says: “Our masked faces do not give enough information to others, and then they can give only scraps of information back. The eyes without the rest of the face have now become what they always were: inefficient entrances to our souls. A technologically mediated face without the rest of the present self cannot anymore hides its status as an insufficient partner. In this composition I present some of my experiences of the ‘work’ of these eyes without faces, and faces without selves; some of my repeating, aimless impressions that seem to find no resolution, my turning and returning towards memories in order to feel some sense of sense making. Scraps of musical material that have been floating in my mind for the past few months are presented – sometimes incoherently – as persistent ostinatos, slowly transforming melodies, strange chord sequences and indistinct rhythmic patterns. The sounds fail to create a convincing line of thought, and the contrasts between the five movements (the five ‘faces’) become slippery. The listener swims in a world in which gravitation has lost some of its force.”
THE PERFORMERS
South Africa’s foremost classical marimbist, Magdalena de Vries has won all the major South African music prizes and international scholarships. After obtaining performer’s licentiate diplomas (with distinction) from both the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and the University of South Africa, two of the most prestigious South African overseas music scholarships were awarded to her and enabled her to pursue postgraduate studies in percussion as the first foreign student at the Tokyo College of Music. Magdalena has extensive experience as an orchestral percussionist, concerto soloist, and recording artist. She is endorsed by Marimba One.
Clarinettist Morné van Heerdengraduated from the University of Pretoria in 2001 and received a Performer's Licentiate in clarinet from the University of South Africa in 2009. As an orchestral musician Morné has played for the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2000. He regularly performs at various local music festivals and chamber music concerts. He is actively involved in South African new music and premiered several new works by established composers. Since 2005 Morné worked as a music educator at Kingsmead College. In 2018 Morné became an artist for Yamaha South Africa and the international reed and mouthpiece company Vandoren.
This concert is the second one in NewMusicSA´s 2021 Concert Series, supported by the Rupert Music Foundation and the National Arts Council. Due to the ongoing public gathering restrictions due to COVID-19, the concert will be recorded and streamed online through NewMusicSA´s social media platforms. No physical audience will be allowed.
NewMusicSA´s 2021 Concert Series is part of the Digital Indaba 2021, a South African contemporary music programme supported by the Rupert Music Foundation, the National Arts Council, the Arts & Culture Trust and the ISCM – International Society for Contemporary Music.
Links
Website: www.newmusicsa.org.za
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewMusicSA
YouTube: https://rb.gy/ba12yn
Twitter: www.twitter.com/NewMusicSA
Hashtags: #NewMusicSA #DigitalIndaba21 #ConcertSeries
Event Listing
Johannesburg – Kalashnikovv Gallery
Sunday 4 April – 3pm – Free Online Stream / No physical audience [except media]
Address: 70 Juta St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Facebook event & streaming link: www.facebook.com/events/3026018831017455