SANYOF & NewMusicSA choose Watt

SANYOF & NewMusicSA choose Watt

NewMusicSA and the South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation announced last week that a work by composer Martin Watt has been selected for performance by the South African National Youth Orchestra.

The work, Rhapsody, will be performed under the baton of Polish conductor Ewa Strusińska at the Sasol National Youth Orchestra Course currently underway in Durban. The course runs until 15 December.

Only pieces for symphony orchestra were considered of a maximum of 20 minutes long. An important criterion was that the piece should be playable but enjoyable and will pose a realisting challnge for young players. The South Africa National Youth Orchestra members are typically between 13 and 25 years and are expected to be a minimum of Grade 6 level. A similar collaboration in 2009 led to readings and performances of five South African works.

A panel of distinguished South African composers, Peter Klatzow, Hannes Taljaard and Jürgen Bräuninger, selected a shortlist of pieces. From this shortlist, the conductor of this year’s National Youth Orchestra, Ewa Strusinska, along with SANYOF’s Artistic Committee (Richard Cock, Eric Albertyn and Bongani Tembe), made the final selection.

Dr Watt is a senior lecturer in music theory at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town who has written over 30 works, many of them commissioned by prominent organizations and performers. His music has been performed, broadcast and recorded in South Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, China and the United States.

He is an active musicologist and has read papers at various national and international conferences and he has published on a variety of topics related to South African music in peer-reviewed journals.

For more information, visit http://www.newmusicsa.org.za or http://www.sanyo.org.za

For concert details, consult the What’s On calendar.

What's On

March 2016
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