South Africa on Music Theory Print

Allan Stephenson

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Allan Stephenson (15 December 1949 – 2 August 2021) was a British-born South African composer, cellist and conductor. Life Born in Wallasey, near Liverpool, he studied the cello in Manchester at the Royal Manchester College of Music before moving to Cape Town in 1973 to join the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He retained the position of associate principal cello until the CTSO closed in 1997. After landing in Cape Town on 13 January 1973, he quickly became involved teaching cello at SACS, and managed these two jobs until his fiancée Christine arrived from England to also teach at SACS. They were married in July 1973. He directed the UCT College Orchestra from 1978 to 1988 and taught as a part-time lecturer of both cello and composition at the University of Cape Town. Stephenson has written over 110 works including a large number of instrumental and chamber pieces, three operas, two symphonies and concertos for Piano, Oboe and Piccolo. Works Operas *The dark tale (1991) *Who killed Jimmy Valentine (1995), based on the novel with the same title by South African writer Michael Williams *Animals, based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm and written with Willem van der Walt and Michael Willi

Amanda Black

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Amanda Benedicta Antony (born 24 July 1993), known professionally as Amanda Black, is a South African singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Gcuwa, her career began in 1999 at the age of 6 singing in church choirs. Amanda was a contestant on Idols South Africa season 11. Black relocated to Johannesburg in 2016 to pursue her music career. She signed a record deal with Ambitiouz Entertainment in 2016 and achieved recognition in the same year following the release of her hit single “Amazulu”, which was nominated for several music awards. Her debut studio album Amazulu (2016), was commercially successful and won “Album of the Year”, “Best Newcomer of the Year,” “Best Female Artist of the Year” and “Best R&B Soul/Reggae Album”. In 2019, she was named the most-streamed artist on Apple Music. Amanda’s third studio album, Mnyama was released in 2021. It was preceded by two singles; “Kutheni Na” and “Let It Go”. Early life and education Amanda Benedicta Antony is Xhosa. She was born on 24 July 1993 in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and grew up in Butterworth, Eastern Cape, where she spent most of her early life; she also lived in East London. She later moved to Port Elizabeth, wher

Anatii

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Anathi Bhongo Mnyango (born 8 January 1993), known professionally as Anatii, is a South African rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Career Anatii began his professional musical journey at the age of 14 when he received his first major South African placement with L-Tido, for the song “When It Rains”. His debut studio album Artiifact was released on 9 September 2016. The album features South African acts AKA, Cassper Nyovest, Nasty C and Uhuru, as well as Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage, Somali-Canadian electronic duo Faarrow and American singer Omarion. In August 2017, Anatii was selected as The Young Independents influencer of the year October 2017 saw Anatii being selected by GQ South Africa as one of the best-dressed men in South Africa In November 2017, Anatii, was selected to be a high-level influencer for the LuQuLuQu project set up by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The official launch in South Africa for the project took place on 29 November 2017 at the Four Seasons Westcliff hotel in Johannesburg. 2018 has seen Anatii, listed in Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30 creatives list. Discography Studio albums Singles Production credits ;2018 * Anatii – Thixo

Arnold van Wyk

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Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk (26 April 1916 – 27 March 1983) was a South African art music composer, one of the first notable generation of such composers along with Hubert du Plessis and Stefans Grové. Despite the strict laws imposed by the Apartheid government during his lifetime, van Wyk’s homosexuality was ignored by the authorities throughout his career due to the nationalistic nature of his music. Early life Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk was born on 26 April 1916 on the farm Klavervlei, not far from Calvinia, a small town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. He was the sixth of eight children. His mother, Helena van Dyk, came from a wealthy family seemingly descended from the seventeenth century court painter Anthony van Dyck. The couple married when farming provided reasonable hopes of financial security, however Van Wyk’s father was never an efficient manager of the business. Little is known about his childhood other than that life was difficult. From as early as 1918, the family struggled financially, his father Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk abused his wife and children. Several members of the family, including Van Wyk’s mother and eldest sisters, demon

Bongani Ndodana-Breen

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Bongani Ndodana-Breen (born 1975, in Queenstown, Cape Province, Republic of South Africa), is a South African-born composer, musician, academic and cultural activist. He is a member of the Xhosa clan. He was educated at St. Andrew’s College and Rhodes University in Grahamstown (where he graduated with a PhD in Music Composition ) and also studied composition in Stellenbosch under Roelof Temmingh. In 1998 Ndodana-Breen was the first Black classical composer to be awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music, by the National Arts Festival and sponsored by Standard Bank of South Africa. He was one of Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans and was profiled on CNN African Voices for his work Harmonia Ubuntu commissioned for the centenary of Nelson Mandela and based on his writings and speeches. He is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University for the 2019/2020 academic year. Dr. Ndodana-Breen’s music is a blend of African and classical styles. Some of his music reflects on various scenes from his native Xhosa culture (such as Hintsa’s Dances, which is based on the life of Paramount Chief Hintsa ka Khawuta, Apologia at Umzimvubu and Sons of The Grea

Caiphus Semenya

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Caiphus Semenya (born 19 August 1939) is a South African composer and musician. As a young musician he sang in the cast of the jazz musical King Kong. After moving to the United States in the 1960s he had a successful career as a composer and arranger, including work on the scores for Roots (1977) and The Color Purple (1985). Biography Caiphus Katse Semenya was born in Johannesburg’s Alexandra Township on 19 August 1939 in a musically inclined family. Semenya formed a recording label, “Munjale”. He returned to South Africa in 1991. * 2015: ACT Lifetime Achievement Award for Music * 1986: Academy Award for Best Original Score for the 1985 film The Color Purple; shared the nomination with nine other composers. Discography * The Very Best of Caiphus Semenya (Columbia, 1996) * Woman Got a Right to Be (1996) * Streams Today… Rivers Tomorrow (Munjale, 1984) * Listen to the Wind (CBS, 1982) With Quincy Jones * Roots (A&M, 1977) References External links *Unisa honours the love story of Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya *

Clare Loveday

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Clare Loveday (born 22 March 1967) is a South African contemporary classical music composer. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and has worked as a professional pianist, a composer for the South African advertising industry, and co-ordinator for the National Research Foundation’s Travelling Institute for Music Research. Loveday has also worked as a lecturer in music theory and composition at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was composer in residence at the 2014 Johannesburg International Mozart Festival. Biography After having graduated from University of the Witwatersrand with a bachelor’s degree in Music, Loveday landed a career for a few advertising companies, two of which are Standard Bank and South African Broadcasting Corporation. She returned to school in the late 1990s, and became a part-time lecturer. Once she achieved her master’s degree in Music Composition, she started to collaborate with other artists and compose her own music and is most known for her saxophone pieces. Clare Loveday then became a full-time lecturer at Wits University, while working towards her doctorate in Music Composition. She has been commissioned by several

Daisuke Ishiwatari

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is a South African-born Japanese video game developer, illustrator, musician, composer, and voice actor. He is best known for creating the 2D fighting game series Guilty Gear. He designed the characters and storyline, and wrote the music. He is a former voice actor for the characters Sol Badguy, Order-Sol, and Freed Velez in Battle Fantasia. Ishiwatari was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Japan. He worked on the first original game for the series Guilty Gear at Arc System Works. Ishiwatari and Yoshihiro Kusano wrote the music for another game series BlazBlue, and painted the character selection portraits for the sequel, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. Ishiwatari is also a metal and rock composer, with music on each games. His compositions feature intricate guitar work. The albums Guilty Gear XX in LA and Guilty Gear XX in NY include his vocals, as do three albums in Japanese by the band Lapis Lazuli. He also composed for Hard Corps: Uprising. Productions *Virtual Open Tennis (assistant designer) *EXECTOR (designer) *Guilty Gear series (illustration, creation and BGM) *Sangokushi Taisen DS (original Ba Tai design) *Dimension Zero (card illustration) *BlazBlue (sound dire

David Earl (composer)

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David Earl (born 1951) is a South African composer and pianist. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys’ High School. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen when he broadcast Bach, Chopin and Chabrier on the SABC. In 1968, he performed Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, he moved to London where he studied at Trinity College of Music. He studied under Jacob Kaletsky and Richard Arnell. After a live début broadcast recital on BBC Radio 3 in 1974, his first recital at Wigmore Hall was reported as “stylish and powerful” by The Times. In 1975, he was selected as one of the Young Musicians of the Year by the Greater London Arts Association. He also won first prize in the 1976 SABC Piano Competition. He was described by The Daily Telegraph as having “remarkable gifts of style, technical mastery and artistry”. He made his début as a composer in the 1977 when he premiered his own Piano Suite No 1 Mosaics at Wigmore Hall. His concerto repertoire includes the Viennese classics, many from the nineteenth century, and amongst those from the 20th, the piano concertos of Arthur Bliss and John Joubert, both of which he studied with the c

Enoch Sontonga

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Enoch Mankayi Sontonga (c. 1873 – 18 April 1905) was a South African composer, who is best known for writing the Xhosa hymn “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” (“God Bless Africa”), which, in abbreviated version, has been sung as the first half of the national anthem of South Africa since 1994. Previously, it had been the official anthem of the African National Congress since 1925. This song was first adopted by Tanganyika as the national anthem, as a translated Swahili version, in 1961 following independence from Great Britain. In 1964, Zambia also adopted it as its national anthem, followed by Botswana and Zimbabwe (who translated into Shona, “Ishe Komborera Afrika”) from 1980 until 1994. South Africa adopted it as its national anthem in 1994. Early life and education Sontonga, a Xhosa, was born in the city of Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape Colony. He trained as a teacher at the Lovedale Institution and subsequently worked as a teacher and choirmaster at the Methodist Mission school in Nancefield, near Johannesburg for eight years. Career The first verse and chorus of "" was composed in 1897 and it was originally intended to be a school anthem. It was first sung in public in 1899 at the ordi

Fifi Cooper

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Refilwe Boingotlo Moeketsi (born 24 October 1991), known professionally as Fifi Cooper is a South African recording artist. Fifi Cooper started her music career as an R&B singer before her musical versatility saw her release her breakthrough rap single “Chechela Morago” in 2010. In 2015, she released her award-winning debut studio album 20FIFI. Early life and education Fifi Cooper is the last of three children. She had her early education in Montshiwa, Mahikeng, South Africa, where she also harnessed her ability in singing and dancing. She completed her secondary school education at Batswana High School, Mahikeng and her higher education at Boston Media House where she studied Media. Career 2008–2014: Early beginnings Fifi Cooper began singing at the age of 8 while in primary school; participating in various social extra-curricula activities. She professionally started her music career in 2008 when she made a guest appearance on Mo’Molemi’s Motzamai: Rebel With a Pause album. Her breakthrough however came in 2010 following the release of her single titled “Chechela Morago”, a rap song that received massive airplay and did well to gain her new grounds in the South African music indu

Hannes Taljaard

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Hannes Taljaard, born Daniël Johannes Taljaard (born 1971) is a South African classical music composer from Siloam, Venda. Taljaard’s compositions have been performed in South Africa and Europe and he won first prize in the Flores Iuventutis competition in Ghent, Belgium, in 1994–1995. He is senior lecturer in composition and composer-in-residence at the School of Music & Conservatory at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He has taken masterclasses with American composer George Crumb and has taken private lessons with Belgian composer Wim Henderickx in Antwerp from 1996 to 2000. He has also attended the Darmstadt New Music Summer School. He is editor of academic publication The South African Music Teacher. His compositions are influenced by African and Arabic music. Orchestral works * Sarabande (1996, violin and symphony orchestra) Chamber music * (1992, clarinet, violoncello/bassoon, piano) *Impromptu (1993, cello solo) * (1993, clarinet, piano) *Metaphor I (1996–1998, any mixed ensemble with ten performers and conductor/composer) *Introverz (1996–1997, cello solo) *Movement for String Quartet (1998) * (1999–2001, piano trio) for the Erasmus Trio *Lullaby (2000–

Hendrik Hofmeyr

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Hendrik Pienaar Hofmeyr (born 20 November 1957) is a South African composer. Born in Cape Town, he studied at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, obtaining a BMus in 1979 and an MMus in 1991. He furthered his studies in Italy during 10 years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector, obtaining State Diplomas in Piano (Florence), Composition (Bologna) and Conducting (Florence) While there, he was awarded the Zucchelli Prize for Composition at the Bologna Conservatorio two years running and also won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher. He also received the annual Nederburg Prize for Opera for this work subsequent to its performance at the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1988. In the same year, he obtained first prize in an international competition in Italy with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. He returned to South Africa in 1992, taking up a post as lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1997, he won two major international composition competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition of Belgium (with ‘Raptus’ for violin and orchestra) and the first edition of the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition

Jacobus Kloppers

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Jacobus (Kobie) Kloppers (born 1937) is a Canadian composer, musicologist and organist. Biography Born in South Africa, Kloppers completed his Doctorate in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1966, Kloppers returned to South Africa to teach, compose and perform. He immigrated to Canada with his family in the mid-1970s in protest to the Apartheid policy. Kloppers settled in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and worked as a private instructor and church musician. In 1978, he was interviewed for a part-time position at a small Christian college, The King’s University (Edmonton), that was to open the next year. The college hired him full-time to develop a music program. He taught organ, music history, and musicology and was chair of the music program until his retirement in 2008. Kloppers is also an adjunct professor of organ at the University of Alberta, an honorary fellow of the RCCO, the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. Kloppers was important in Edmonton’s Winspear Centre acquiring the Davis Concert Organ, a world-renowned instrument. In 2009, Kloppers was inducted into Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame. In 2011, the University of the Free State began a project to

Kevin Volans

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Kevin Volans (born 26 July 1949) is a South African-born Irish composer and pianist. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne in the 1970s and later became associated with the Neue Einfachheit (New Simplicity) movement in the city. In the late 1970s he became interested in the indigenous music of his homeland and began a series of pieces which attempted to combine aspects of African and contemporary European music. Although Volans later moved away from any direct engagement with African music, certain residual elements such as interlocking rhythms, repetition and open forms are still detectable in his music since the early 1990s which have taken a new direction more redolent of certain schools of abstract art. He settled in Ireland permanently in 1986 and was granted Irish citizenship in 1994. Biography Volans was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on 26 July 1949. During his teenage years, he developed an interest in the music of the post-war avant-garde as well as abstract painting. He pursued a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of the Witwatersrand graduating in 1972, where June Schneider was one of his teachers. After postgraduate study

Lebo M

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Lebohang Morake (born 11 July 1964), known as Lebo M, is a South African producer and composer, known for his songwriting and vocal work on the soundtracks to films such as The Lion King, The Power of One and Outbreak and numerous stage productions. He was recommended to Disney by Hans Zimmer, the composer of both adaptations of The Lion King, and formed and conducted the African choir that sang for the films. Early life Lebohang Morake was born on 11 July 1964 in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. With no formal training in music, he left school at the age of nine to perform music in night clubs. Morake recorded his first single, “Celebration”, when he was 13 years old, receiving only $20 for recording the record. When he was 13 years old, Morake became the youngest performer to sing at the nightclub Club Pelican, when he filled in for a backup singer who could not attend. Career Early career In 1979, Morake sought to broaden his horizons, so he left by bus for Maseru, Lesotho, after hearing that a new club was going to be opening there. Morake lived at first in New York, again playing in restaurants and bars, and was supported by Black churches to attend music school. for which

Lulu Dikana

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Lungisa Dikana (18 December 1978 – 3 December 2014) was a South African recording artist and vocalist. Her music career shot to limelight in 2008 following the release of her debut album My Diary, My Thoughts. She died on 3 December 2014 after a short illness. Life and career Born into a family of musicinas in Kwazakhele, a small town in Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth, Lulu began singing as a chorister in her local church at the age of 15. Her father, Vuyiselie Dikana was a drummer for a band known as “Black Slave and the Flamingo”. An alumna of Fort Hare University where she studied Law, Lulu released her debut album titled My Diary, My Thoughts in 2008 produced by Nigerian-born music producer Wilson Joel . The album contained hit tracks like “Real Love” and “Life and Death”. Following the success of her debut album, Lulu began working on her second album This Is the Life. The album was released in 2011 and went on to be nominated in three categories at the 2013 Metro FM Music Awards and “Best R&B/Soul/Reggae Album” category at the 19th South African Music Awards. In October 2014, she released I Came To Love, her third studio album which earned her three nomination spots at the 21st

Marthinus Lourens de Villiers

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Marthinus Lourens de Villiers was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church from 1912 to 1930, then a full-time musician until his death in 1977 and is especially known for his setting of Die Stem. Biography The son of Dirk de Villiers, organist of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Tina Smith, he was introduced to the piano, organ and violin at a very young age by his parents, owners of a music institute in Wellington. He later took up the clarinet and played in the Wellington brass band. He obtained his baccalaureate in 1904, a year after publishing his first piano composition. From 1905 to 1907, de Villiers taught music in Wepener in the Orange Free State. There he founded a brass band, composed and was organist of the Dutch Reformed Church. He then studied from 1908 to 1911 at the theological seminary in Stellenbosch, during which time he became interested and involved in the defense of the Afrikaans language against English. Of British but also Boer descent, he was also affected by the destruction of the Second Boer War, by the efforts to rebuild the population, by his friendships, notably with the former president Marthinus Steyn. He gradually became a pro-Afrikaner activist. From

Michael Blake (composer)

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Michael Blake (born 31 October 1951) is a South African contemporary classical music composer and performer. He studied in Johannesburg in the 1970s and was associated with conceptual art and the emergence of an indigenous experimental music aesthetic. In 1976 he embarked on ‘African Journal’, a series of pieces for Western instruments that drew on his studies of traditional African music and aesthetics, which continued to expand during two decades in London until he returned to South Africa in 1998. From around 2000 African music becomes less explicit on the surface of his compositions, but elements of rhythm and repetition remain as part of a more postcolonial engagement with material and form. He works in a range of styles including minimalism and collage, and now also forages for source material from the entire musical canon. Biography Michael Blake was born in Cape Town. He took piano lessons at the South African College of Music from the age of 9, and began composing soon afterwards. In 1970 he registered for a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg studying composition with June Schneider and Klaas van Oostveen, and piano with Adolph Ha

Michael Mosoeu Moerane

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Michael Mosoeu Moerane (20 September 1904 – 27 January 1980) was a choral music composer and the first black South African to write a symphonic poem, in 1941. Early life Moerane was a member of the Bafokeng, specifically the Mahoona clan – traditional healers whose longer history can be traced back several centuries through the lineage of the Bakwena royal family. He was born on 20 September 1904 in Mongoloaneng, a village in the Mount Fletcher district of South Africa close to the border with Lesotho. He was one of seven children born to Eleazar Jakane Moerane and his wife Sofi Majara, whose grandparents were disciples of Moshoeshoe I and were among the first Basotho converts to Christianity. The two most celebrated are his younger brother, Manasseh Tebatso Moerane, the educationist, cultural activist and journalist who became an Editor of The World newspaper, and his younger sister, Epainette Mbeki, one of the first women to join the Communist Party of South Africa, a stalwart community activist and promoter of women’s development, and mother to a future President of South Africa, Dr. Thabo Mbeki. Education His father’s primary school provided Moerane’s first elementary schooling

Nathi

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Nkosinathi Mankayi (born 23 December 1982), professionally known as Nathi, is a South African singer-songwriter. He shot to limelight upon the release of his critically acclaimed song titled “Nomvula” off his triple-platinum debut studio album Buyelekhaya. He later released his second album titled Umbulelo Wam on 28 October 2016. He is presently signed under Gallo Record Company. The in 2025 he released his song titled"Bhunguza lam “with Lazola and others Early life Nkosinathi Mankayi was born among five siblings to a single mother in Mthatha, a small town in Eastern Cape, South Africa. He grew up in Maclear, Eastern Cape, South Africa where he was educated and developed an interest in music and drawing. In 2006, Nathi was sentenced to 8 years in prison for a 2002 robbery-related crime. He was however released after serving 4 years. Career 2008–2014: Early beginnings With the aim of pursuing a career in music, Nathi competed and won a local music competition known as “Dare to Dream”. He had his share of luck in November 2014 after Vusi Nova heard him sing and insisted on featuring him on a song titled “Noma Kanjani”, a song that was well received and went on to get massive airplay

Peter Klatzow

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Peter James Leonard Klatzow (14 July 1945 – 29 December 2021) was a South African composer and pianist known for his contributions to classical music in South Africa, particularly through his innovative use of tonality, his integration of diverse cultural influences, and his significant advancements in marimba music. He held academic positions at the University of Cape Town, where he became professor of composition and director of the South African College of Music. Early life and education Klatzow was born in Springs, South Africa, into a family with Jewish heritage, although he was baptized at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Brakpan, due to his maternal grandmother’s influence. His early musical education began at the Roman Catholic convent of Saint Imelda in Brakpan when he was about five years old. After completing his schooling, Klatzow briefly taught music and Afrikaans at Waterford Kamhlaba School in Swaziland before moving to London in 1964 to study at the Royal College of Music (RCM). At the RCM, he studied under notable figures such as Bernard Stevens (composition), Gordon Jacob (orchestration), and Kathleen Long (piano). During his time there, Klatzow won several prizes for

Priaulx Rainier

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Ivy Priaulx Rainier (3 February 190310 October 1986) was a South African-British composer. Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from her childhood. One of her sisters was a cellist. She taught at Badminton School, Bristol, and also played violin in a string quartet. (1939). It was given a private performance in 1940 but not performed publicly until 1944, at Wigmore Hall. The music was used for a ballet titled Night Spell, performed by the José Limón company in the United States in 1951 and the Barbaric Dance Suite for piano (1949; premiered in November 1950 by Margaret Kitchin). There is also a Suite for clarinet and piano (1943), a Sinfonia da camera for strings (1947; commissioned by a close friend, where she remained until 1961. Jeremy Dale Roberts, Rachel Cavalho, and Christopher Small. She and Michael Tippett co-founded the St Ives September Festival, first presented in June 1953. Music The first of Priaulx Rainier’s large orchestral works was Phalaphala (the word refers to an African chief’s ceremonial horn), first heard in 1961, celebrating Sir Adrian Boult’s tenth a

Robert Fokkens

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Robert Fokkens is a South African classical music composer. He is among a new generation of younger composers in post-apartheid South Africa. He was educated in Cape Town at Rondebosch Boys’ School. He currently teaches composition at Cardiff University School of Music. His works are frequently performed in the UK, Europe and South Africa, including performances at the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Holland Music Sessions, the Spitalfields Festival, the South African National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, and the Royal Festival Hall. He had works performed in Japan, Australia and the USA, and his music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His music is included on a 2005 CD of South African choral music, Towards the Light, recorded by the Commotio choir. Fokkens previously studied at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town with Peter Klatzow, and at the Royal Academy of Music, where he held the Manson Fellowship in 2001–2. He has received many awards and scholarships and completed his PhD, supervised by Michael Finnissy at the University of Southampton in 2006. The composer explored writing contemporary music theatre which escapes both ‘opera’ and ‘music

Rosa Nepgen

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Rosa Sophia Cornelia Nepgen (Barkly East, Cape Colony, 12 December 1909 – Stellenbosch, South Africa, 14 February 2000) was a South African composer. The bulk of her oeuvre consists of settings of Afrikaans poems for voice and piano, including numerous songs with lyrics by her husband, W.E.G. Louw, and his brother the poet N.P. van Wyk Louw. Early life, education, and marriage She was the daughter of Johann Nepgen, a barrister in Barkly East, and Millicent Grace Schlemmer, a talented singer, pianist, and violinist. She received piano lessons from her mother at an early age. The family moved to Pretoria in 1912 and to Standerton in 1913. In the latter place she was taught by organist Dirk Meerkotter, but in the meantime she also took lessons with Ellen Norburn at the Pretoria College of Music. This was supplemented with singing and organ lessons with Stephanie Faure. From 1927 onwards, Nepgen studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in the faculties of Music, English, and Ethics. In 1931, she graduated with a B.Mus. She subsequently became a lecturer at the aforementioned university. In 1944, she married Louw, who, besides being a poet, was also a professor of Afrikaans and Du

Stefans Grové

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Stefans Grové (23 July 1922 – 29 May 2014) was a South African composer. Before his death the following assessment was made of him: “He is regarded by many as Africa’s greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive compositional voices of our time”. Early life In Bethlehem, Orange Free State, where Grové was born, his mother worked as a music teacher and his father as a school principal. Grové’s musical education began at school and his first compositional efforts date from that time. He eventually trained as a pianist and organist, with the guidance from his mother’s brother, D.J. Roode. While working at the Bard College, Grové also took up a post as choirmaster for the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, where he pursued an interest in the performance of early music—most notably the cantatas of J.S. Bach. A similar venture was undertaken with a group that Grové founded in 1962, the Pro Musica Rara. He undoubtedly had a better exposure to European and American avant-garde than his contemporaries and that difference can be noticed in the quality of his music. His work, Glimpses. Five Miniatures for Piano (2004) was performed at the ISCM World Music Days in Hong Ko

Stephanus Le Roux Marais

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Stephanus le Roux Marais (1 February 1896 – 25 May 1979) was a South African composer known for his significant contribution to Afrikaans art song. Early life and education Stephanus le Roux Marais was born on 1 February 1896, on the farm Aasvogelkop in the district of Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Surendran Reddy

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Surendran Reddy (9 March 1962 – 22 January 2010) was a South African composer and pianist. After his studies at the Royal College of Music and King’s College in London he had a highly successful international career as a classical and jazz pianist. He invented his own new musical style called “clazz” in which he fuses classical, jazz, South African mbaqanga and other world music elements. His compositions, which have been performed all over the world, include orchestral and chamber music as well as solo instrumental and vocal works. Biography Surendran Reddy was born in Durban, South Africa, on 9 March 1962. He grew up in Zimbabwe where he started his musical career at an early age. He studied piano at the Rhodesian Academy of Music in Bulawayo and already did concert tours as a classical pianist at the age of 13. At 15 he won a scholarship which took him to the Royal College of Music in London where he studied from 1977 to 1981 with inter alia Bernard Roberts and Yonty Solomon (piano), George Malcolm (harpsichord), Virginia Pleasants (forte piano), Anthony Milner (Harmony and counterpoint). From 1981 to 1982 he studied musicology at King’s College, London University with inter ali

Thomas Rajna

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Thomas Rajna (21 December 1928 – 16 July 2021) was a British pianist and composer of Hungarian birth. He had been domiciled in Cape Town in South Africa since 1970. Biography Rajna was born in Budapest, Hungary. He started to play the piano and compose at an early age and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where he won the Liszt Prize in 1947. That year he left Hungary to settle in London and enrolled at the Royal College of Music. He soon appeared at the Proms under such conductors as Carlo Maria Giulini, Colin Davis and John Pritchard, also becoming a frequent broadcaster at the BBC. In 1963 he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His first commercial recording was the complete piano solo works of Igor Stravinsky. After that he recorded music by Alexander Scriabin, Robert Schumann and Olivier Messiaen, the piano part of Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka with the New Philharmonia under Erich Leinsdorf, and Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta with Sir Georg Solti and the London Symphony Orchestra. He completed a cycle of recordings devoted to the entire piano music of Enrique Granados. Subsequently he undertook to recor

Trevor Jones (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Trevor Alfred Charles Jones (born 23 March 1949) is a South African composer of film and television scores, who has worked primarily in the United Kingdom. He is best known for his scoring work during the 1980s and 1990s, where he worked on many acclaimed films including Excalibur, Runaway Train, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Mississippi Burning, The Last of the Mohicans and In the Name of the Father. Jones has collaborated with filmmakers like John Boorman, Andrei Konchalovsky, Jim Henson, Alan Parker, Jim Sheridan, Barbet Schroeder and Michael Mann. Jones has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards for Best Film Music - for Mississippi Burning, The Last of the Mohicans, and Brassed Off. He has also been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards - Best Original Score and Best Original Song, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie or Special for the miniseries Merlin. Jones has been a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in Britain since 2006. In 1999, he became the first chair of the music department of the National Film and Television School. Early life and education Jones was born in Cape Town in 1949, one of three siblings born to a Cap

Wouter Kellerman

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Wouter Kellerman (born 20 September 1961) is a three-time Grammy Award-winning South African flautist, producer, composer and philanthropist, who has won nine South African Music Awards. Classically trained, Kellerman performs primarily World, Roots and New Age music. Background Kellerman was born in Johannesburg in 1961 to parents Pieter van Ellewee Kellerman and Susanna Petronella Greeff. Kellerman chose the flute as his instrument, and his parents hired the equipment and arranged lessons at the Randburg Music Centre. He was able to obtain a bursary from Anglo-American and studied electrical engineering at the University of Johannesburg. With two children to raise on his own, and not able to financially support them in music, he continued his engineering career while pursuing music part time. for his 2014 album Winds of Samsara, a collaboration with Indian composer and producer Ricky Kej. Winds of Samsara reached No. 1 on the US New Age Album Billboard Charts and also peaked at No. 1 on the ZMR (Zone Music Reporter) Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart in the month of July 2014. Kellerman’s Love Language (2015) received a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Contemporary Instrumental Album’, and w

Zonke

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Zonke Dikana (born 11 October 1979), known simply as Zonke, is a South African singer-songwriter and record producer. Her rise to stardom came in 2011 following the release of her third album, Ina Ethe, which was certified double platinum and was nominated at the 18th South African Music Awards. In 2013, she recorded and released Give and Take Live, which was certified gold just two months after its release In September 2015, Zonke released Work of Heart, her fifth album, to critical acclaim with nominations in several categories at the 15th Metro FM Music Awards and 22nd South African Music Awards. She signed a record deal to Sony Music Entertainment in 2013. On 15 June 2018, she released L.O.V.E, her fifth studio album, with Sony. Early life and education Zonke was born in KwaZakhele, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Her father, Vuyisile Dikana, was a drummer for a group called Black Slave and the Flamingo, her mother, Fundiswa Peter, was a medical technician while her late stepmother Anneline Malebo was a singer for a musical band known as Joy. She is a young sister to Lulu Dikana who is also a music artist. She is an alumna of the University of the Free State, from where she graduat