City of Roses
The City of Roses (CoR) Jazz Ensemble will present its launch concert on the 16th of March 2022 at 19:30 in the Odeion Concert Hall. Entrance to the concert will be free.
The founding of the City of Roses (CoR) Jazz Ensemble was inspired by the recently appointed Dr Joseph Kunnuji at the Odeion School of Music. Kunnuji’s profound knowledge and experience of jazz as a trumpeter and arranger opened the way for establishing a quality jazz ensemble, thereby renewing the quest for jazz at the OSM.
The ensemble’s focus for this concert will be on mainstream jazz as represented by the so-called Classical or Bebop period in its history (the mid-1940s to mid-1960s) characterised by the music of prominent figures of the time such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. The ensemble consists of five versatile and seasoned musicians, namely Joseph Kunnuji (trumpet), Claire Röntsch (saxophone) Nicol Viljoen (piano and keyboard), Marc Röntsch (bass; also newly appointed at the OSM) and John Smit (drums).
JOSEPH KUNNUJI (PhD, University of Cape Town) is a Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology and African Musics at the Odeion School of Music. With a background in jazz studies, the orthodox church hymn-singing tradition and a few cosmopolitan African genres, Kunnuji’s teaching, research, compositions and performances reflect the inherent intersection of different worlds.
MARC RÖNTSCH is a musicologist, guitarist and bassist originally from Cape Town, and was recently appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the Odeion School of Music, University of the Free State. Marc has performed with bands such as Black Moscow, The Hot Club of Cape Town and Tape Hiss and Sparkle, and has appeared as a soloist with the University of Stellenbosch Symphonic Orchestra and the Stellenbosch University Jazz Band.
CLAIRE RÖNTSCH (neè de Kock) is a saxophonist, session musician, composer, arranger, music lecturer and educator. She graduated with a BMus in Jazz Performance at the South African College of Music (SACM) in 2014 with distinction and has recently received her master’s degree in Jazz Composition from SACM under the tutelage of renowned local composers Dr Mike Campbell and Professor Amanda Tiffin. In 2015, Claire won the Fine Music Radio Jazz Performance competition and has performed internationally in Europe and locally at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. She is currently performing with The Swing Collective, The Lady Day Big Band and her own progressive jazz quartet (who perform her own compositions). Claire has recently been appointed as a conductor and arranger for the Free State Youth Wind Ensemble at the Odeion School of Music.
JOHN SMIT has been involved in the music industry since 1994. Through the years he has recorded, sessions as kit-drummer/bassist and audio mixed numerous national and international music productions ranging from classical to rock, traditional to jazz recordings and live performances. For the past seventeen years, he has been lecturing in Music Technology at the Odeion School of Music.
NICOL VILJOEN is a Professor Emeritus and a Research Fellow at the Odeion School of Music. Viljoen’s versatile activities include those of a music theorist, concert pianist, chamber musician, jazz pianist, and church organist. Viljoen’s research during the past decades has focused on theoretical Schenker studies and their application within musical performance practice.
ADMISSION: FREE
ENQUIRIES: Ninette Pretorius
E: pretoriusn@ufs.ac.za
T: +27 51 401 2504