African Bird Live album launch - Newly built Seabrook recital hall (WITS university theatre complex) -24 station street next to the Nunnery

ABOUT

Live launch of Khanyisile Mthetwa - Flutist's debut CD African bird

Khanyisile Mthetwa(flute) and Peter Cartwright ( Piano) will perform live at the newly built Seabrook concert hall situated in the WITS university theatre complex. Ticket price includes a light snack and a glass of wine

Concert will feature music from the album African bird that celebrates living female and South African composers. The album takes you on a beautiful journey through music and time. The choice in music seeks to address the lack of inclusion of music composed by women and people of color in the classical music concert space but, also address social justice issues and also appreciate the beauty of our country and planet.

Come and experience live music in this incredible space!

African Bird Parking and Covid Protocol

Guests may park at Solomon Mahlangu basement 2 (off Jorissen Street) just after the Main entrance to the University on the left.

Parking will be available from 17h00 to 22h00 and signs will direct guests to the concert hall.

There will be a limited number of parking bays outside of Wits Theatre for wheelchair drivers and disabled passengers. This will be available from 17h00.

For people arriving using Uber, drop off is at Station Street entrance and security will let you in. 

Please inform security that you are going to the Seabrook Concert Hall for an event.

All guests are required to do the covid screening test using the USSD code for visitors *120*8501#

Please make sure this is completed before you leave your home and that you have your phone with you to show security. 

Thank you to our sponsors SAMRO foundation,IKAS consulting, The Norwegian embassy and Concerts SA . This concert is one of the beneficiaries of the Digital Mobility fund.

African Bird

Programme Notes

Four Legends                    Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)

Lin-Fa (The Lotus Lily)

Dagda’s Harp

Gaia

El Encierro (The Running of the Bulls)

Valerie Coleman is regarded by many as an iconic artist who continues to pave her own unique path, as a Grammy® nominated flutist, composer and entrepreneur. Named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, and regarded as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” as listed in the Washington Post by critic Anne Midgette, she is also an alumna of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center CMS Two, laureate of Concert Artists Guild, the flutist and founder of the performer-composer trio Umama Womama. Perhaps most notably, she is the creator, founder, and former flutist of the acclaimed Imani Winds, an ensemble whose performances and original works have redefined wind chamber music with performances that span the globe.

The first set of her music in this concert are these four colourful and light pieces with programmatic titles.

Winter Solstice               Merryl Neille

South African Flautist Merryl Neille’s compositions are influenced by various light, popular music genres. This piece was awarded second prize in the 2020 Flute Society of New South Wales Composition Competition. Merryl’s own inscription included with the score captures its spirit.

On the shortest day of the year, something begins to stir. Frost melts off of flower petals. Seedlings, deep within the soil, awaken to activate tentative sprouts. Birds sing a little more joyously, and fly a little higher, as the sun begins its “return”. Blessings of balance for the coming seasons raise a tender and hopeful vibration from the earth.

One Lingering Quasar                Conrad Asman (b. 1996)

The music of composer Conrad Asman has gained international recognition as being “innovative and cutting edge” (Chorosynthesis) and spans a wide emotional range from “heart-rending” (The Esoterics), to “fun and festive” (Creative Feel). His works have been performed in Africa, Asia, Europe and America in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the Jinji Lake Concert Arena. Engagements with ensembles such as the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Esoterics ensemble and the Cape Town Youth Choir have led to his work winning multiple major awards, scholarships and commissions worldwide.

This work, written in 2016, describes the movement of an enormous celestial body as it travels through the universe, using extended range and timbre of both the flute and piano.

Black Autumn                   Musa Nkuna (b. 1973)

This short work by South African Tenor and composer, Musa Nkuna is dedicated to Jean-Claude Bliss.

Wish Sonatine                  Valerie Coleman

Valerie Coleman's first work for flute and piano, Wish, was inspired by and titled from poet Fred D'Aguiar's work. Wish is a dramatic tone poem for flutist and pianist alike, depicting the Middle Passage in which Africans were trafficked across the Atlantic by tall ships to be sold into slavery. The virtuoso 12-minute journey is a powerful work, expressive and with thrilling impact.

Interval

Requiem Milonga            Valerie Coleman

A song of longing and remembrance for those who have loved and lost.

Omuramba           Alexander Johnson (b. 1968)

Alexander Johnson lectures harmony, counterpoint, form, analysis, composition and orchestration at the University of Pretoria.  He is also the founder and chairman of the Stefans Grové National Composition Competition.

This piece is the second in a suite for Flute and Piano called Khalagari. Spacious music conjures images of dry riverbeds in the Kalahari desert.

Mabalêl – fantasy for Flute and Piano on the poem by Eugene Marais        

Hendrik Hoymeyr [b. 1957]

South African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr was born in Cape Town. His first major success as a composer came in 1988 with the performance at the State Theatre of The Fall of the House of Usher, which won the South African Opera Competition. In the same year, Hofmeyr, who was furthering his studies in Italy during ten years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector, obtained first prize in an international competition. In 1997 he won two further international competitions, the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium and the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in Athens. Hofmeyr, whose oeuvre includes some 90 commissioned works, is currently professor and Head of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Cape Town, where he obtained his Doctorate in 1999.

The Mabalêl Fantasia is based on an abridged version of Eugène Marais's poetic account of the tragic history of Mabalel, daughter of King Rasithlare. The pool in the Limpopo where she met her end, previously known as Rakwena ('Father of the Crocodile'), was renamed in her memory.

Angola                     Bheki Mseleku (1955 - 2008) (arr. Daniel De Wet)

Angola is one of the most well-known works by legendary South African jazz pianist and composer Bheki Mseleku.

Intokazi yelanga – Khanyi’s tango                 Irene Morrick

A tango composed by Irene Morrick who is a friend of Mine. I was going through a time earlier this year when all I could listen to was tango’s and Bossa Nova genre and Irene composed this piece for me.

DIRECTIONS