PROF JACOBUS KLOPPERS RESIDENT AT THE OSM

22 August - 5 September 2017

(with concert “Tribute to Kloppers” on 31 August, 19:30, Dutch Reformed Church Universitas)

Jacobus (Kobie) Kloppers (born 1937 in Krugersdorp) is a Canadian composer, musicologist and organist. He has composed many notable pieces, especially for organ, and has been the subject of substantial scholarship.

This includes a Masters dissertation by Eljee du Plooy, titled “Jacobus Kloppers: A Life of Service in Music” (2013).

Born in South Africa, Kloppers completed his Doctorate in Frankfur (Germany). In 1966, Kloppers returned to South Africa to teach, compose and perform. He immigrated to Canada with his family in the mid-1970s in protest to the Apartheid policy. 

Kloppers settled in Edmonton (Canada), and worked as a private instructor and church musician. In 1978, he was interviewed for a part-time position at a small Christian college, the King's University College (Edmonton), that was to open the next year. The college hired him full-time to develop a music program. He taught organ, music history, and musicology and was chair of the music program until his retirement in 2008. Kloppers is also an Adjunct Professor of Organ at the University of Alberta, an Honorary Fellow of the RCCO, the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.

Kloppers was important in Edmonton's Winspear Centre acquiring the Davis Concert Organ, a world-renowned instrument. In 2009, Kloppers was inducted into Edmonton's Cultural Hall of Fame. In 2011, the University of the Free State began a project to collect and house a complete collection of Kloppers' work.

Prof Kloppers will be resident in the Odeion School of Music for the period 22 August - 5 September 2017. The main purpose of his visit is for him to be available for a number of in-depth conversations concerning a book publication on his life and work, which will be edited by Prof Martina Viljoen. Both local and international scholars have been invited to contribute to the planned publication. The preliminary lay-out includes a number of chapters on topics that will illuminate both Prof Kloppers’s life history, as well as important aspects of his professional contribution, and his creative output: Introductory chapter – Profs Marnie Giesbrecht-Segger and Joachim Segger (University of Alberta and King’s University, Edmonton, respectively).

Biographical background – Eljee du Plooy and Prof Martina Viljoen (University of the Free State) A stylistic comparison between Kloppers and Stefans Grové – Prof Izak Grove (Stellenbosch University)

Stylistic influences in Kloppers’s organ oeuvre – Prof Nicol Viljoen, Dr Jan Beukes, Prof Martina Viljoen (University of the Free State)

An analytical study of the Dialectic Fantasy – Luzanne Eigelaar and Dr Matildie Thom Wium (University of the Free State)

Triptych for alto saxophone and organ – Dr Charles Stolte (King’s University, Edmonton)

Reflections: Prologue, Variations and Epilogue on an Afrikaans Folk Song – Profs Nicol and Martina Viljoen (University of the Free State)

Perspectives on Kloppers’s teaching of musicology at the King’s University – Dr Charles Stolte (King’s University, Edmonton)

“TRIBUTE TO KLOPPERS”

The OSM will present a concert entitled “Tribute to Kloppers” of compositions by Jacobus Kloppers on the 31st of August at 19:30 in the Dutch Reformed Church Universitas.

The following works will be performed:

PROGRAMME:

Partita on In Dulci Jubilo

Three Plainsong Settings
Hosanna (for chorus)
How lovely are your dwellings (for choir, organ and flute)
Give thanks to God, the Father (for choir and trumpet)
Verdwyn is nou die Daglig (Art song for lyrical tenor and organ) based on the Lutheran chorale, Der Mond ist aufgegangen.

ADMISSION: Free