OSM Dean’s Concert
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Odeion
19:30
The OSM annually hosts a special Dean’s Concert where top students of the OSM perform.
The first half of the programme will include performances by OSM students, the Odeion String Quartet together with the Junior Odeion String Quartet as well as the Odeion Choir. The second half of the programme will consist of the OSM Camerata performing under the baton of conductor Jan Moritz Onken. Jan Moritz Onken, has been appointed as chief conductor of the OSMC for the second season of 2013 and will prepare the OSMC for their participation at the 13th International Conservatory Festival in St Petersburg in November this year.
ADMISSION:
R110 (adults)
R70 (pensioners)
R40 (students and learners
R40 (group booking of 10+)
Tickets available at Computicket.
All concert proceeds go towards the St Petersburg fund for the OSM Camerata’s visit to Russia.
ENQUIRIES:
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)
13th International Conservatory Festival
After a successful audition the OSMC received an invitation to participate in the 13th International Conservatory Festival which will take place in St Petersburg Russia from the 1st to the 9th of November 2013. The festival is a yearly highlight on the concert calendar of the prestigious Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire. It is the first time in history that an orchestra from Africa is invited to partake in this festival.
The artistic panel of the festival under the auspices of Prof Lydia Volchek annually selects ten conservatories internationally (in the likes of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (Moscow), Conservatoire de Paris, Eastman School of Music NY and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki Finland to name but a few) to gather in St Petersburg for the festival. The rector of the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatoire, Prof Mikhail Gantvarg stated that it will be the first school of music hailing from Africa to participate in the festival ever. The OSMC was requested to give two recitals of 40 minutes each during the festival. Maestro Jan Moritz Onken will lead the ensemble to St Petersburg; OSMC members will have the opportunity to attend all concerts presented by fellow participants and master classes presented by the masters of St Petersburg Conservatoire.
The festival is usually opened and closed with a grand concert presented by the St. Petersburg Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra (70 plus members). Last year the opening concert was conducted by the celebrated master, Valery Gergiev (artistic director of the Mariinsky Opera and Symphony Orchestra) while the closing ceremony was conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Both Gergiev and Bychkov are alumni of the St Petersburg Conservatoire.
The OSMC will recite a programme of mainly South African composers, with two new works commissioned by the OSM New Music Initiative from the prolific South African composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr, entitled Notturno Elegiaco and Phantom Waltz. Phantom Waltz is a challenging work where musicians simultaneously play, sing and speak. A reworked edition for chamber orchestra of the original string quartet for piano and soprano, Lieder op Boesmanverse, by revered South African composer, Stefans Grové will also be performed. To commemorate the centenary of composer Benjamin Britten this year, Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten by Arvo Pärt is also included in the programme.