Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Ovation Awards winners still on this weekend: 
  • Rob’s still standing, looking like a true survivor
  • The last weekend cometh: gig guide, part 2
  • Functional art from earth and fire
  • Ashes to ashes
  • Absent fathers
  • Generational rifts in post-Apartheid South Africa
  • Bridging the jazz generations
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
Cue Media
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»ARTS & LIFE»Choral success for locals
ARTS & LIFE

Choral success for locals

Sue MaclennanBy Sue MaclennanMay 28, 2017No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Andrew-John Bethke, former Director of Music at the Grahamstown Cathedral, has won a prestigious composition award. File photo

 

The Cape Town Male Voice Choir and the Cenestra Male Choir performing together at Oude Libertas Amphitheatere in Stellenbosch (2016). The musical directors of the choirs formed part of the judging panel for the Choral Competition where AJ Bethke won R10 000 for his original composition, ‘A Prayer for Africa’. Photo supplied

Former Director of Music at Grahamstown Cathedral Andrew-John Bethke is one of two South African composers who will receive international exposure when his winning composition is performed in South America in July. In the same competition, Director of the Access Music Project in Grahamstown, Gareth Walwyn won the prize for best arrangement in a prestigious music competition.

Former Director of Music at Grahamstown Cathedral and Rhodes Choir conductor Andrew-John Bethke was one of two winners of the recent Choral Composers competition held in Stellenbosch, with his original composition,‘A prayer for Africa’. Joint winner Xander Kritzinger’s work is titled ‘In die skadus van my siel’. Bethke and Kritzinger won R10 000 and the prestige of an international premiere performance of their work in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay.

The competition was facilitated by the Cape Town Male Voice Choir and Ekurhuleni’s Cenestra Male Choir with sponsorship from the National Lottery.

CTMVC Chairperson Lewis Rabkin said, “The aim of the competition was to unearth talented South African composers and bring back a focus to male choir singing.”

Members of the choirs will be participating in workshops and master classes at the Melodia! South American Music Festival in which they are performing in Argentina and Uruguay.

Composer and organist Bethke said, “I wanted to write a piece which attempted to pull together traditional South African musical techniques and languages, rooting the piece strongly in South African traditional culture.” The composition includes techniques such as a call-and-response, parallel harmonisations and descending melodies characteristic of Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and Tswana music.

Kritzinger is a music teacher and choir master for Stellenbosch High Choir and the Viva Cantare Community Choir.

On their tour to South America, the two choirs of 80 men singing in four-part harmony will showcase the best of the South African choral tradition, performing an eclectic blend of sacred, classical and jazz works in a number of South African languages as well as French, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish and Latin.

Grahamstown’s Gareth Walwyn, Director of the Access Music Project, won the prize for best arrangement.

Conrad Asman won a special award for being technically sound. Theriso Tsambo and Keboletse Molokwane won scholarships to the value of R5 000 for their great potential in composition style.

Grahamstown recently bid A-J Bethke farewell: HERE’S HOW WE DID IT bit.ly/GrocMusFare

Previous ArticleChild Protection is everybody’s responsibility
Next Article Close call for donkey and driver
Sue Maclennan
  • Twitter

Local journalism

Related Posts

Ovation Awards winners still on this weekend: 

Rob’s still standing, looking like a true survivor

The last weekend cometh: gig guide, part 2

Comments are closed.

Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Cue for you!
Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Latest video

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2022 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.