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03 January 2020 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied
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Bence Szepesi will be one of the main attractions at the Clarinet Extravaganza

Some of the biggest names in classical music will be part of the second International Clarinet Extravaganza to be hosted by the Odeion School of Music (OSM) from 28 January 2020 until 1 February 2020. The 2020 festival hopes to build on the success of the inaugural festival held in 2016. 

Some of the artists will include Eddy Vanoosthuyse and Severine Sierens from Belgium, Marco Mazzini from Peru, Feng Mei from the USA, and Bence Szepesi from Hungary.

 “The objective of the festival is to expose South African clarinettists (of all ages and levels) and educators to current international clarinet trends, excellent artistry, and the opportunity to receive masterclasses from top clarinet pedagogues,” says Dr Danré Strydom, OSM lecturer and convener of the festival. 

The festival will consist of various concerts, clarinet workshops, composition competitions for high-school learners and university students, individual and group masterclasses, and an evening concert with the Free State Symphony Orchestra. There is also a special prize to be won by the top participant. The winner will receive a full scholarship to attend the 2020 Clarinets on stage Academy in Belgium.

News Archive

Islam. Boko Haram. Terrorism. Prof Hussein Solomon offers insight.
2014-09-04

 

 Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Prof Hussein Solomon introduction: video

When it comes to politics, there are lots of negative talk, but without any action or solutions.

However, with Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor at the UFS’s Department of Political Science, there is not a lot of talk without solutions, but great activity regarding research work published on Islam, the Middle East, Boko Haram and environmental issues in Africa.

Prof Solomon’s most recently published article, Five Lessons Learned from Ejecting Islamists in Mali, was published in the Research on Islam and Muslims in Africa (RIMA) Policy Papers on 1 September 2014.
(https://muslimsinafrica.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/five-lessons-learned-from-ejecting-islamists-in-mali-professor-hussein-solomon/ ).

“The terrorist threat is mounting with each passing day in Africa with Islamist terror groups exploiting the ungoverned spaces, the availability of weapons, porous borders, an incompetent security apparatus and corruption in the political establishment,” Prof Solomon writes in this paper.

“It is therefore important, to explore cases where attempts have been made to dislodge the Islamists with a view to learn lessons so that future interventions do not repeat the failures of the past. This paper explores the intervention and lessons which could be learned from French and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) attempts to oust Islamists in northern Mali in 2013.”

Prof Solomon holds a DLitt et Phil (Political Science) from the University of South Africa (UNISA). In 2011, he was Visiting Professor at the Osaka School for International Public Policy (OSIPP). In 2007 and 2010 he was Visiting Professor at the Global Collaboration Centre at Osaka University in Japan and in 2008 he was Nelson Mandela Chair of African Studies at Jawahrlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. In 1994, he was Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of War Studies, King’s College at the University of London. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the MacKinder Programme for the Study of Long-Wave Events at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom.

He is also a Senior Associate for the Israeli-based think tank Research on Islam and Muslim in Africa and a Senior Analyst for WikiStrat.

More articles by Prof Solomon:

Boko Haram and the case of the abducted school girls
http://muslimsinafrica.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/reinvigorating-the-fight-against-boko-haram-professor-hussein-solomon/

Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview on Boko Haram
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/counterpoint/boko-haram/5657882  

Reflections on Inga 3 and Beyond
www.saccps.blogspot.com  

Nile and Okavanga River Basins (pdf)
 
Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Beyond the rhetoric (pdf)

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