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29 January 2020 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa
Kovie Act
For more information on the 2020 Kovsie ACT programme and the upcoming events, visit the UFS Kovsie ACT website page, email: jool@ufs.ac.za or call: +27 51 401 2718 or visit Kovsie ACT on Facebook and Twitter.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is preparing for an exciting 2020 KovsieAct programme, with Amapiano superstar Kabza de Small, deep house music pioneers Black Motion, and musical sensations Spoegwolf and Early B poised to entertain students, staff, and the public at a Kovsie ACT music festival on 1 February 2020. 

Something new to the programme this year is the Kovsie ACT eco-vehicle parade through the streets of Bloemfontein. This parade replaced the old RAG float building and procession.

This is done with the intention to foster a close relationship with the broader Bloemfontein community. The parade on 1 February 2020 is also a celebration by first-year students of their entry into the UFS campus community.

The parade will be followed by an eco-vehicle race taking place on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. Five teams will compete in categories including an Endurance race, Slalom course, Obstacle course, and Formula1-inspired race. Karen Scheepers, 
UFS Assistant Director for Student Life, says Kovsie ACT is a great opportunity for students to learn about sustainable environmental development through exciting community-building activities. “It’s an opportunity for them to learn new skills and build valuable relationships.”

“Skills developed through the programme include students learning to listen and communicate better; they also acquire time-management and relationship-building skills. Kovsie ACT also propels them to persevere and practise responsibility and pride in the activities they participate in throughout the programme, which sees them personify the term ‘only a Kovsie knows the feeling’,” Scheepers explained. 

Dr WP Wahl, Director: Student Life in the Department of Student Affairs, says the UFS has already initiated the next phase of the eco-vehicle project.  

“The Department of Student Affairs, in partnership with merSETA and the Department of Engineering Sciences (Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), is developing six skills programmes that will significantly enhance the developmental impact of this programme for participating students.  To this effect, a team of engineers and instructional designers are working with the UFS to ensure that the necessary competencies are embedded in these skills programmes, which will help graduates compete on a global scale.  Students will be able to apply to become part of this high-tech phase of the eco-vehicle project during April 2020.” 

Kovsie ACT programme

09:00 – Kovsie Act Parade departing from the UFS Furstenburg Gate. Short parade through Mangaung: Nelson Mandela Drive – Zastron Street – 2nd Avenue – Kellner Street and return via Nelson Mandela Drive to the UFS

11:00 - Parade arrives back at UFS Furstenburg Gate

11:30–14:00: Eco-vehicle race at Mokete Square (previously known as the Red Square) on the Bloemfontein Campus

 16:00–till late: Kovsie ACT Music Festival at Bloemfontein Campus Rag Farm 
For more information on the above-mentioned events, visit the UFS Kovsie ACT page, email: jool@ufs.ac.za or call: +27 51 401 2718 or visit Kovsie ACT on Facebook and Twitter.

News Archive

Alexander Ramm Cello Recital with Pieter Jacobs (piano)
2016-04-15

Description: Ramm Tags: Ramm

Alexander Ramm

“Ramm plays with enormous musical authority. Unlike many young instrumentalists, he is not intimidated by the reflective or the elegiac; nor is he nervous about the length of pauses, or the creation of inter-phrase silence. He has a phenomenal technique and he demonstrated it to full effect in this captivating performance.” (Cape Times)

Alexander Ramm belongs to the new generation of cellists recognised for his appealing artistic creativity and unprecedented technical skills. Alexander started his musical education at the age of seven at the Glier music school (Kaliningrad) with Svetlana Ivanova. Her extremely serious attitude to music studies and pedagogical talent revealed the rare musical capabilities of this young cellist.

After moving to Moscow at the age of ten, he was accepted to the class of Maria Zhuravleva at the Chopin Moscow College of Music Performance. From 2007, he continued his professional education at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the renowned musician and the People’s Artist of the USSR, Natalia Shakhovskaya, an outstanding performer and pedagogue who taught most prominent Russian cellists. Since 2012, he has become a postgraduate student at the Hanns-Eisler Hochschule fur Musik under the guidance of the famous cellist, Frans Helmerson.

From the age of nine, when he made his debut as a soloist with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra, Alexander brilliantly performs with solo programmes and as a soloist with leading orchestras in Russia and worldwide.

He is prizewinner at several international competitions:
1st prize: 4th Moscow Competition for young cellists (2003)
1st prize: 1st Cambridge International Boston Competition (Massachusetts, 2005)
Grand-Prix: Moscow Festival of Romantic Music (Moscow, 2006)
4th prize: 5th UNISA International String Competition (South Africa, 2010)
1st prize: 3rd Beijing International Music Competition (Beijing 2010)
1st prize: 1st All-Russia Music Competition (Russia, 2010)
Prizewinner: Janigro Cello Competition (Croatia, 2012)
Prizewinners: Swedish Duo Competition with duo partner Anna Odintsova (2012)
3rd prize: Paulo Cello Competition (2013) – becoming the first Russian prizewinner in the history of this prestigious contest
2nd prize: XV International Tchaikovsky Competition (2015)

Alexander participated in masterclass festivals at Courchevel Academy and Holland Music Sessions, where he took lessons from the famous musicians such as F. Muller, R. Latzko, M. Kliegel and U. Wiesel. In 2011, he took part in the well-known Verbier festival, where he studied with H. Hoffmann, F. Helmerson, M. Suzuki, L. Power and F. Radosh. At the end of the festival, he was awarded the Neva Foundation top-level prize for gifted students.

Alexander cooperates with such outstanding conductors as V. Gergiev, V. Spivakov, A. Levin, K. Orbelyan, V. Polyansky, S. Kochanovsky, M. Fedotov, A. Slutsky, A. Sladkovsky.

He will be accompanied by Pieter Jacobs, a graduate of the University of Pretoria, who then furthered his studies at Yale in the United States, where he pursued his performing career with considerable success as a soloist and chamber musician in Boston, Cambridge and New Haven before returning to South Africa to perform and teach at the University of Pretoria. Pieter is regarded as one of SA’s foremost pianists and chamber musicians.

Programme:

Grieg: Cello Sonata, Op. 36 in A minor (1883)
Barber: Cello Sonata, Op. 6 in C minor (1932)
Prokofiev: Cello Sonata, Op. 119 (1949)
Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango for cello and piano

Date: 22 April 2016
Time: 19:30
Venue: Odeion
Costs: R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R70 (UFS staff members), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+). Tickets available at Computicket.

More information: Ninette Pretorius +27(0)51 401 2504.

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