SA Music Day Program

SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC DAY
September 23rd, 2007, Manhattan School of Music
Cnr Broadway and 122nd, New York City

11:30 am Introduction to South African Music
Video-Conferencing Presentation
Leading South African musicians will be presented to a New York audience live from the University of Cape Town, South Africa via video-conferencing. This exciting technology enables these acclaimed South Africans to be present without having to leave South Africa. This is a great and personal introduction to the music and musicians of South Africa, including a discussion of South African jazz and African choral music, and general musical trends in the country. Included is a question and answer session between the musicians in Cape Town and the New York audience in a truly exciting and technologically advanced cross-continental exchange.

13:30 pm Afternoon Concert
South African Vocal Works
This short program explores a diversity of vocal music from South Africa, the country associated with miraculous voices and a huge wealth of vocal traditions. Presented works range from traditional Xhosa, Zulu and Afrikaans songs to contemporary works by James Wilding and Robert Fokkens for solo voice and larger vocal ensembles.

15:00 Southern African Music explored with Dizu Plaatjies
This afternoon workshop will focus on non-Western instrumental traditions of Southern Africa. Dizu Plaatjies’ interest in African percussion music has taken him to numerous countries on the continent, resulting in his large collection of hand-made sub-Saharan instruments, which he will use to lead the audience through the musics of the region. Plaatjies, the son of an African traditional healer, grew up in the Cape Town township, Langa, and has himself been initiated in the Xhosa/Pondo tribal tradition.
He is the founder and former leader of South Africa's internationally celebrated marimba group, AMAMPONDO, which he led in performance from the streets of Cape Town to international concert stages, from Canada to Taiwan, including Nelson Mandela’s Birthday Concert in Wembley Stadium. Dizu´s compositions and arrangements of traditional songs appear on five albums by his former group.
An incredibly dynamic teacher and solo performer, he has recently visited the USA, Scandinavia and Holland. He now teaches at the University of Cape Town.

18:30 Pre-Concert Talk with Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans has been described as “one of the planet’s most distinctive and unpredictable voices” by the Village Voice, and BBC Music Magazine listed him as one of the 50 most important living composers. He was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne, and now lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Following a productive collaboration with the Kronos quartet in the 1980’s his work, principally in the field of chamber and orchestral music, has been regularly performed worldwide. Principal performances in the last years include the Berliner Festwoche, the Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Lincoln Centre, New York, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, the San Francisco Symphony and the BBC Proms.

19:30 South African Chamber Music Concert
Featured Composer: Kevin Volans
This evening concert will focus on the works of Kevin Volans, and will also feature chamber music works by internationally-acclaimed South African composers Hendrik Hofmeyer, Peter Klatzow, Paul Hanmer and Robert Fokkens. The audience will be treated to many American premieres, featuring some of New York’s and South Africa’s finest award-winning performers and contemporary music specialists.