19.08.2016  On 25 August at 18h00, the Arnold van Wyk Centenary Concert will be presented during the annual SASRIM (South African Society for Research in Music) Congress, hosted by the Odeion School of Music (UFS).

SASRIM 2016 is celebrating the 10th anniversary of SASRIM, as well as the centenary of the birth of South African composer, Arnold van Wyk.

The concert will be recited by OSM staff members and the OSM Camerata. The OSM has curated a special concert programme to commemorate celebrated composer Arnold van Wyk. The first part of the programme will consist of three well-known signature Arnold van Wyk works hailing from different time periods in his career.

The concert will be broadcast live by FINE MUSIC RADIO with Rodney Trudgeon as the host. To listen to this broadcast, go to http://www.fmr.co.za/, then click on the Listen Live button.

The programme includes Van Wyk’s Pastorale e Capriccio, perfromed by Grethe Nöthling (piano), Van Liefde en Verlatenheid, performed by Mathildie Thom Wium (mezzo-soprano) and Lesley-Ann Mathews (piano), Five Elegies for String Quartet, perfromed by the Odeion String Quartet and Alfred Vorster’s Koud is die Wind for Chamber Orchestra, performed by the OSM Camerata.

Koud is die Wind was commissioned from alumnus Alfred Vorster by the OSM NEW MUSIC INSIATIVE and will be premiered by the OSM CAMERATA under the baton of the composer. Vorster describes it as a composed interpretation based on the song Koud is die Wind and other themes from Arnold van Wyk’s celebrated cycle Vier weemoedige liedjies. The narrative of this composition aims to depict the final moments of life, characterized by flashbacks of various life experiences as the eternal light nears.

This gala concert will simultaneously serve as the annual OSM Dean’s concert.

The OSM’s new book entitled MUSICS OF THE FREE STATE (Musicology without Frontiers no 2) will formally be released on the 25th of August 2016 in the Odeion foyer directly after the concert. The publication received a sterling review from Prof Harry White, (University of Dublin) in the International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 47 (1).