Join us for Adapt and Adopt on 31 October 2024, featuring the talented sibling duo, Cèzarre Strydom on piano and Professor Danré Strydom on clarinet.
This eclectic concert showcases pieces adapted and reimagined for clarinet and piano, blending baroque elegance with bold 21st-century experimentalism. From the stately sounds of the 17th century to the wild energy of contemporary music, the programme promises a delightful journey through time and style.
Prof Danré Strydom has established herself as one of South Africa’s premier solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians. After attending the Interlochen Arts Camp (USA), she began her formal studies with Heinrich Armer at the UFS. She furthered her studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, working with renowned clarinettists Eli Eban and Eric Hoeprich. She holds two master’s degrees in clarinet, early clarinet and bass clarinet performance from the Royal Conservatory at Ghent University and completed her PhD at the UFS.
After playing clarinet/bass clarinet for the award-winning Brussels Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013, she accepted a position as the woodwind lecturer at the Odeion School of Music. She is currently the principal clarinettist of the FSSO, an International Buffet Crampon artist, continental chairperson of the International Clarinet Association, and member of the Suid-Afrikaase Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.
Cèzarre Strydom, brother of Danré Strydom, began piano lessons with Valerie van Biljon at the College of the Arts in Namibia. After lessons with Nettie Immelman in Bloemfontein, he furthered his musical studies in the USA at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan. His teachers have included Prof Logan Skelton, Arthur Greene, Dr TJ Lymenstull, Michael Coonrod and Derison Duarte, and he has performed across the USA, Mexico, Germany and Belgium.
Upon returning to South Africa, Cèzarre worked as a staff accompanist at the University of the Free State. He is currently Head of Music at Paul Roos Gymnasium (Stellenbosch).