Sixty young musicians, local and from across South Africa, will gather in Grahamstown for the third National Grahamstown Music Competition for three days from Friday, 31 July.
Sixty young musicians, local and from across South Africa, will gather in Grahamstown for the third National Grahamstown Music Competition for three days from Friday, 31 July.
They compete in junior, senior and tertiary levels, with a concerto section as a popular bonus drawing 11 contestants. A substantial private donation made the competition possible and there are good prizes to be won.
Unisa are funding prizes in the junior and senior sections, Torquil Paterson SC is funding prizes in the tertiary section, and Lee Gold in the concerto section.
Judge John Foxcroft has sponsored a special Haydn prize in the 200th anniversary year of Haydn’s death, and the Grahamstown Music Society are funding the Mariel Ilusorio prize for voice.
A challenging standard was set in the first two years of the contest, formerly known as the Rising Stars Competition. The two judges for 2009 are welcomed as musicians who can be relied on to maintain this quality.
Hubert van der Spuy has extensive national experience as an adjudicator of competitions, eisteddfods and music festivals, serving on many selection panels and various committees concerned with music and music education.
He is an external examiner for practical and theoretical examinations up to doctoral level at various universities. In 1994 he was a jury member of the 7th Unisa Transnet International Piano Competition and in 1995 a jury member of the Pan African Music Competition held at Unisa.
From 1991 to 2007 he chaired the annual Unisa South African and Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship Competitions. The other judge, Bridget Rennie-Salonen, regarded by her peers as one of South Africa’s finest flautists, has performed as soloist with many orchestras and has rich experience in music performance and education.
She is frequently invited to act as adjudicator or external examiner. Entrance is free to the public for competition sessions on Friday, 31 July through Sunday, 2 August for junior, senior and tertiary level in St Andrew’s College Drill Hall off Worcester Street from 9 am on Friday, 10.30 am on Saturday and 12 noon on Sunday.
Audiences are also welcomed free of charge for the concerto first round in the Beethoven Room of the Rhodes Music Department from 2.30 pm on Saturday, 1 August.
The final highlight for the junior, senior and tertiary levels will be the Prizewinners’ Concert on Monday, 3 August at 7.30 pm in the St Andrew’s Drill Hall.
The last exciting event is on Friday, 9 October, when the final round of the concerto section will see six finalists battling it out in the Concerto Festival as they perform with the Rhodes Orchestra under the baton of Juan Munoz in the Guy Butler Theatre at the 1820 Settlers Monument.Tickets at R40 will be available at the door for both these concerts
