NewMusicSA Concert Series 2021 - Concert #3

Youngblood Gallery, Cape Town @ 7pm 8 March 2021 (doors open @ 6pm)

NewMusicSA presents concert in Cape Town with new piece by Neo Muyanga

NewMusicSA presents the third concert of its Digital Indaba 2021 Concert Series. A selected programme of works including the second movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony arranged for piano trio, a new commission for voice and piano trio from Neo Muyanga, and works from other South African composers, performed by Lungiswa Plaatjies (voice), Matthijs van Dijk (violin), Graham du Plessis (cello) & David Lubbe (piano).

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 call for scores, an improvised and multi-disciplinary series, outreach community activities, workshops, and this Concert Series (online and in-person, restrictions observed). Comprised of three concerts, the 2021 Concert Series celebrates some relevant music anniversaries. Each concert will feature 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.

Chairman 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.”

The concert will take place at YoungbloodAfrica. The Youngblood Foundation, which won a BASA (Business and Arts South Africa) award, was created in January 2010. Youngblood is an arts & culture development that aims to be a platform for artists from all genres to start off from or to continue from in order to become self-sustainable. Youngblood’s founder, Roger Jungblut, is the CEO of Universal Africa Lines Shipping (UAL), a leading shipping company that has been connecting Africa’s oil and gas industry with the US and Europe for over 40 years. Through Youngblood, he entered another, uniquely different but equally challenging sector: the creative one. Jungblut realised that there was a need in the Arts and Culture sector in South Africa. The need for capital and exposure, through Youngblood these needs could be met. It remains his priority to support progress within that creative sector through Youngblood. This way, many promising artists are newly motivated: they are given the chance, and of course the means, to reach their full potential.

COMPOSERS & PERFORMERS

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, the exact date is unknown. As a young boy, Beethoven played the violin, often enjoying improvisation rather than reading the notes from a score. His earliest piece on paper is from as early as 1782, a set of nine variations for piano. By 1793, aged just 22, Beethoven often played the piano in the salons of the Viennese nobility. He often performed the preludes and fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and quickly established himself as a piano virtuoso. Beethoven started to go deaf around 1796, aged just 25, he communicated using conversation books. Critics say that he reinvented the symphony, reshaped string quartets, redefined piano sonatas, and was the deaf composer who changed music forever. The music from his Symphony No. 7 is a great accompaniment to 2010 movie, The King’s Speech, as George VI makes his address to the nation. In this concert we will hear an arrangement of the second movement for piano trio.

Conductor of some of the world’s greatest orchestras, Marin Alsop, has said that Beethoven was “all about love and joy and celebrating the essence of what it is to be human...what it is to be connected” (Southbank Centre), the same could be said of South African composer and singer, Joseph Shabalala, leader of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, who was due to celebrate his 80th birthday 4 on 28 August 2020. Shabalala and Beethoven both experienced great trials in their lifetimes and yet brought joy and hope, and much more, to audiences around the world. It is for this reason we celebrate them in this concert: a Beethoven work paired with a commission inspired by the lives of Beethoven and Shabalala by Neo Muyanga.

Neo Muyanga is a composer, sound artist and librettist. His work traverses new opera, jazz improv and African song idioms. He is co-founder of the acoustic guitar duo, Blk Sonshine (with Masauko Chipembere) and the sound art platform, Pan African Space Station (co-founded with Ntone Edjabe). His recent compositions include The Heart of Redness (2015) – an opera adaptation of Zakes Mda’s novel; MAKEbdA – an oratorino commissioned by the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (2019); and lately, How Anansi freed the stories of the world (2021) – a chamber opera currently in production at the Dutch National Opera & Ballet. Muyanga has released 9 records including Toro tse Sekete (2015) and MAKEdbA on vinyl (2019). He is an alumnus of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm, des DAAD. A Maze in Grace is a multimedia installation developed for the São Paolo biennale of Art in collaboration with The Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art during 2020/2021. Muyanga has published research papers in publications such as the South African Theatre Journal, the online journal HERRI and other literary platforms.

The concert programme will also be featuring works from other young South African composers, namely, Amy Crankshaw, Lungiswa Plaatjies, and Matthijs van Dijk. The latter two are also part of the performing ensemble.

Amy Crankshaw is a South African composer currently based in London. Current appointments include a new piece for pianist Vanessa Wagner (commissioned by Radio France), an Opéra de-ci de-là residency (at Festival International d’Art Lyrique Aix-en-Provence), The Apothecary (a new opera in collaboration with writer/librettist Clare Best), and a new work for tuba and piano (for Ricardo Carvalhoso of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra). Amy is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Music Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Amy studied her Masters in Composition at the South African College of Music under Hendrik Hofmeyr. In 2014, Amy was awarded the runner-up prize in the South African Music Rights Organisation’s prestigious Overseas Scholarship Competition for Composers and was the recipient of the Priaulx Rainier Prize in 2015. Amy’s works have been performed throughout South Africa, with commissions by the South African Music Rights Organisation, the South African National Youth Orchestra, The Avanti Duo, and Biblioteek Productions.

Lungiswa Plaatjies is a musician, singer and composer. Born and raised in Langa Township in Cape Town, she started singing at the age of eight years old before becoming the lead vocalist of Amampondo. She has toured extensively around the world and released her first solo album, Lungiswa, in 2000. After spending time digging deeper into the foundation stones of African music and Xhosa dance (Umxhentso), Lungiswa released her second solo album, Unonkala produced by Don Laka. In 2002, she was nominated for Best Newcomer and Best Female Vocalist at the SAMA awards and was also nominated for two Kora awards. Lungiswa says, “When I was young. From the time I was in school, music was my passion. You know when you grow up and everyone asks, “What do you want to be?” I was like, “I want to be a musician!” That was my dream. I’m living that dream now.”

Matthijs van Dijk is a composer and arranger, as well as an active chamber and orchestral musician. Van Dijk has written several commissions for numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras, such as the Carnegie Hall affiliated Decoda Ensemble, amongst others. His composition awards include the Priaulx Rainer Prize and the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship. In 2005 he received a Kanna Award nomination for his work with Karen Zoid and the Sontonga Quartet. As Composer-In-Residence at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, van Dijk collaborated with Rivonia trialist and freedom fighter Denis Goldberg, with their piece, Moments In A Life. In 2018, van Dijk was Co-Composer-In-Residence at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, sharing the residency with long-time collaborator Lungiswa Plaatjies. In 2019 van Dijk launched his ongoing podcast “The South African Composers Archive”, showcasing the incredibly varied musical voices the country has to offer.

Graham du Plessis completed his Bachelor of Music (Hons) at the University of Birmingham. He completed his MMus specialising in cello performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He was the recipient of the Eifion Evans award for musical excellence and the winner of the Cardiff Violins chamber music competition. He was also a runner-up in the BBC Proms Young Composer competition. After his studies Graham enjoyed performing chamber music throughout Europe and the UK. He played with British orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and others. Graham has recorded film and TV music for the likes of Universal, and for a number of contemporary artists. Upon returning to South Africa in 2017, Graham has enjoyed freelance work, regularly performing with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, and is the cello Lecturer at the University of Cape Town.

David Lubbe is a Cape Town based pianist working in many different genres. David studied piano at Stellenbosch University with Nina Schumann and Luis Maghalaes. After completing his degree, he took a detour through the accounting industry for almost 15 years before returning to music full-time. He currently works at the South African College of Music as a vocal coach and accompanis, and performs regularly around Cape Town as a chamber musician. David won the Edgars Baby Competition in 1983. Some of his recent performance credits include ANGELS ON HORSEBACK: RELOADED, band member of singer, Vasti Knoesen at Stellenbosch Woordfees, performance at the 27 Club, with Dani and The Lion, in Some Days at the Alexander Bar, and in the musical comedy, The Pitch. 

Due to the ongoing public gathering restrictions due to COVID-19, the concert will be recorded and streamed online through the social media platforms of NewMusicSA and Youngblood Gallery. A limited physical audience of 50 will be allowed.

This concert is the third one in NewMusicSA´s 2021 Concert Series, supported by the Rupert Music Foundation and the National Arts Council.

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 SAMRO Foundation, the Arts & Culture Trust and Nedbank, 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

Cape Town – Youngblood Africa

Saturday 8 May – 7pm – Free Online Stream / R80 (limited physical audience)
Address: Beautiful Life Building, 70 – 74 Bree Street, Cape Town
Facebook event & streaming link: https://fb.me/e/271ijtlen 
Tickets for physical event: https://qkt.io/QlaYW1