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UFS honours Prof Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph, co-composer of South Africa’s revised national anthem

21 August 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Stephen Collett

The Odeion School of Music at the University of the Free State (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus recently hosted a tribute concert in honour of one of South Africa’s most celebrated composers, Prof Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph, one of the key figures in composing and arranging South Africa’s revised national anthem between 1995 and 1997.

The event, held on 20 August 2025, combined celebration and preservation as Prof Zaidel-Rudolph’s complete archive of over 80 compositions across various genres was officially handed over to the school.

Recognised as a pioneer in the country’s musical and academic life, she holds the distinction of being the first woman in South Africa to obtain a doctorate in music composition, awarded in 1979 by the University of Pretoria. Her studies later took her to the Royal College of Music in London and to Hamburg, Germany, where she worked under the legendary György Ligeti, whose influence continues to resonate in her music. With more than 80 compositions across diverse genres, Prof Zaidel-Rudolph’s career reflects a rare balance of daring creativity, refined craft, and deep cultural rootedness.

Her legacy reaches even further into the worlds of music and history – she was one of the key composers of the revised South African National Anthem between 1995 and 1997, at the request of President Nelson Mandela, and she received the Order of Ikhamanga (Bronze) from President Thabo Mbeki in 2004 for her contribution to the arts. The tribute at the UFS therefore recognised both a towering figure in music and a custodian of South Africa’s cultural memory.

“Today we gather here to recognise a living legend, and to honour a life steeped in music, in meaning, and in mentorship,” said Prof Vasu Reddy, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation at the UFS, who officially welcomed guests and received the collection on behalf of the university. “Her compositions have shaped our national identity – from the concert stage to the anthem we sing. We celebrate a woman of many facets – a composer, educator, pioneer, and a friend of the UFS.”

A legacy entrusted to the future

Prof Alexander Johnson, Director of the UFS International Institute of the Arts and an accomplished composer of international repute, helped secure this priceless collection for the UFS. It includes manuscripts, personal correspondence, rare handbooks, journals, and artefacts that will now be digitised and catalogued for future generations of scholars and performers.

“This is nothing less than a national treasure,” said Dr Jan Beukes, Head of the Odeion School of Music. He described the handover as a moment of profound significance, not only for the university but also for South Africa’s cultural landscape. “To be entrusted with such a legacy is an immense privilege. As custodians, we will safeguard it and ensure that students at undergraduate and postgraduate level have access to an extraordinary field of research possibilities.”

Prof Reddy added: “Prof Zaidel-Rudolph’s archive is not just a donation – it is a legacy of knowledge, creativity, and cultural memory. Your voice as composer will remain bold, intricate, and unmistakably your own as we treasure your gifts. It will serve as a living resource for students, scholars and performers. Your archive will fuel research, ignite performance and stimulate the imagination for generations to come.”

For the university, the archive represents more than shelves of manuscripts. It offers young musicians and researchers direct access to the creative process of one of the country’s foremost composers, while preserving a cultural inheritance that belongs to the nation as a whole.

“Your archive will provide new impetus to the UFS aspiration as we create responsible societal futures,” Prof Reddy said. “Without the arts and music, such aspirations will be poorer. We accept with huge gratitude your bequest, as it will also help us collectively to shape a more humane, creative, and inclusive future.”

Prof Zaidel-Rudolph said the occasion carried deep personal meaning. “I could not think of a more fitting repository for my music material than the University of the Free State,” she said, adding that it warmed her heart to know her work would be carefully respected and presented. She emphasised her hope that the archive would inspire students, researchers, and music-lovers for years to come. The UFS’s Archive for Contemporary Affairs will have oversight of the collection.

Her gratitude was underscored by a broader reflection: “It fills me with a sense of incredible gratitude that there is an institute that is sufficiently committed to look after the music of a South African composer, to curate it, look after it, promote it, and let it be there for others.”

The tribute concert also featured the world première of her newest composition, ‘Unications for String Quartet’. Prof Zaidel-Rudolph explained that the work was inspired by a yearning for harmony in an often-divided world. “At my age and stage, having lived a long life so far, thank God, my sense is that people need to be more loving and unified, the sisterhood and brotherhood of nations. I hoped this work would give a sense of unity among performers and convey that unity to audiences.”

The première was equally special for the musicians. Violinist Samantha Durrant of the Odeion String Quartet said the ensemble felt privileged to work closely with the composer. “We were extraordinarily lucky to really get into this work and understand her music as best as possible,” she said. “Prof Rudolph gave us her time, her enthusiasm, her precision, and that guidance was invaluable.”

Performing her music also carried personal resonance. “It brings us so much joy to play music written by a woman, for women,” Durrant said. “We love Mozart, Beethoven, all the greats, but it is wonderful to reflect on the fact that we have extraordinary composers in this country, writing music of equal brilliance.”

The programme included performances by Odeion lecturers Nicolene Gibbons and Nina Phillips, who presented a selection of Prof Zaidel-Rudolph’s piano works. Together with the quartet’s première, the concert not only celebrated the composer’s past achievements but also affirmed her continuing influence.

“Prof Zaidel-Rudolph’s music, her legacy, and her generosity will forever be part of the UFS story in the years to come,” Prof Reddy concluded.

By entrusting her archive to the UFS, Prof Zaidel-Rudolph has ensured that her life’s work will live on in both performance and scholarship.

News Archive

UFS responds to concerns around high costs of higher education

2015-10-15

Dear Students

UFS responds to concerns around high costs of higher education

There is an understandable and shared concern among students in the country around the high costs of higher education. As you know, this also is a matter of deep concern on our campuses, which the University of the Free State (UFS) has made a priority in discussions with student leaders - and through new strategies to relieve the burden of costs on poor students and their families. In fact, in the past two weeks, the UFS leadership has again engaged students on the matter of fees in the future.

This is what we have done so far. We have maintained our position as one of the universities with the lowest tuition fees in the country. As you would have seen from recent newspaper reports on the cost of a degree at various institutions over the past five years, the UFS has had consistently low fees. This is not an accident; both the University Council and the executive leadership of the UFS is of one mind that we must offer a high quality education at minimum cost to all our students, despite the rising costs of operating a large multi-campus university with 30 000 students. Our commitment to you is to continue to keep those costs to students as low as possible, without compromising on the quality of education.

In addition, we took a decision earlier this year to become the first university to drop application fees for first-year students. We are proud of that achievement, since so many students fall at this first hurdle as they contemplate post-school education and training. We also waived registration fees for postgraduate students and now Research Master’s and PhD students can study tuition free under certain conditions. We raised more than R60 million from the private sector to enable talented students, who do not receive NSFAS funding, to complete their degree studies at the UFS. We set aside some of the university’s own funds to enable even more students to access finance for their studies. And we now have a special office set aside to counsel and assist students to apply for more than one scholarship to support their studies. The university does not follow a policy of maximizing exclusions. It has endeavoured and succeeded to turn around the majority of its potential deregistration cases. During 2015 we had 2 700 students at the risk of being de-registered, but our serious efforts resulted in only over 200 instances of exclusion we could not mitigate. As is the practice for the past few years, these students’ debt for 2015 has been reversed.

But, we do not only look for funds from outside to support our students. Last year we set up a Staff Fund to which ordinary members of the academic and support staff can contribute from their own, and sometimes very modest, salaries to enable Kovsie students to finish their degrees. We have volunteers who work on the No Student Hungry (NSH) Bursary Programme to raise funds for students who cannot afford a regular meal. We have an open line to rural and township schools to nominate poor students with good results for support by the Rector’s Fund, and some of those students are now in their final year of studies. And many of our staff support individual students in their homes and with their families, without being asked to do so. This is what we call the Human Project and it remains central to the way in which we deal with students.

We will of course continue to make representation to government, the private sector, and individuals to increase funding, especially for first-generation students, and for families where more than one student is at university. We will continue to take to the road to raise funds from companies and foundations to finance our students. We will expand on-campus opportunities for limited working hours for students who wish to earn some money to support their studies. As we have said often before, no student who passes all their courses or modules will be turned away simply because they do not have the funds to study.

The UFS discusses and agrees to fee increases with our students well in advance of the next academic year. None of these decisions are taken without the agreement of the student leadership and thus far these engagements, while tough, have always been done in good faith and with the students’ interests at heart.

It is important for you to know that, with the declining government subsidy, in real terms, and the expanding needs of our students, we will not be able to keep the university running without fees - even though this source of revenue comes mainly through scholarships and bursaries. We need to compensate staff, purchase new library books and renew journal subscriptions (which is very difficult given the low value of the Rand), upgrade computers and software, pay rates and taxes, purchase laboratory equipment, pay the water and electricity bills, expand internet services, upgrade campus security, and hire more academics to keep class sizes reasonably small. It is important for you to know that the university has managed to avoid increasing student fees as a result of much higher municipal rates. Our lecturers are not the highest paid in the country and financially we run a tight ship. We consistently achieve unqualified audits and we are known to be one of the universities that manage its NSFAS contributions with great efficiency. We do this because of our commitment to ensure that our students are able to enjoy a high quality of education on a stable campus where there is a deep respect for all campus citizens.

Despite all these efforts, the most important message we wish to communicate, is that the door remains open for continued discussion with student leaders as we continue to find ways of keeping university education open and accessible to all qualifying students. At the same time, the UFS leadership is involved in discussions with government about how to best manage the escalating cost of higher education for our dents.

Thank you for your support and understanding at this time and be assured, once again, of our commitment to students as a matter of priority to the university leadership.

Best regards

Prof Jonathan Jansen
Vice-Chancellor and Rector

University of the Free State
19 October 2015

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