Juan, Mariel, and Friends will be back this year to provide an exciting programme every month from July to October at St Andrew’s College Drill Hall.
Juan, Mariel, and Friends will be back this year to provide an exciting programme every month from July to October at St Andrew’s College Drill Hall.
Sponsored by the Rupert Musiekstigting and Sundial Bed & Breakfast, this concert series aims to provide chamber music at the highest level, simultaneously encouraging collaborations between guest musicians from out of town, local musicians, as well as giving opportunities to students to work together and perform in an encouraging atmosphere.
The series will open on 25 July with “Three Pianists, Three Concertos, Three Periods”. Concertos by Bach, Mozart and Chopin will be performed in their chamber music version with soloists Dr Liezl-Maret Jacobs from Durban, Erika Bothma from Port Elisabeth and of course, Mariel Ilusorio of Grahamstown.
The accompanying string quintet consists of Juan Muñoz, Duncan Samson, Nicholas Fiddler, Cameron Cordell, and Dorothy Holder.
This concert will be repeated in Port Elizabeth at the NMMU Auditorium on 27 July. Liezl-Maret Jacobs will also be presenting a piano teaching workshop on 26 July from 2 to 4.30 pm at the Rhodes University Music Department.
The series continues on 17 August with special guests Xavier Cloete, who plays the bassoon and hails from Stellenbosch, Hilary Paterson on oboe, Jenny Brand on clarinet, and horn-player Boris Mohr performing the Brahms Horn Trio, Mozart Quintet for Winds and Piano, and Milhaud’s Suite for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano.
On 16 September, South Africa’s doyenne of cellists Marian Lewin, will be returning to perform an evening of trios by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven’s Archduke Trio.
The final concert on 23 October will be a fusion of jazz and classical music featuring, as special guests, a jazz ensemble led by John Edwards. All concerts are at 7.30 pm.
Tickets cost R70 or R40 for students, learners and pensioners and series tickets are available at R220. The piano teaching workshop can be booked in advance with the same price and there will be a R20 reduction for those who attend the workshop as well as the opening concert.
Chilean violinist/conductor Juan Muñoz and Filipina pianist Mariel Ilusorio have made Grahamstown their home since 2004 and have been busy keeping classical music alive through their teaching and performing.
The duo has performed in the Philippines, Germany, Chile, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, and enthusiastically offer their fourth season after much success of previous years.
