KZNPO’s 2018 Spring Season Is Set to Wow

KZNPO’s 2018 Spring Season is set to wow
Durban City Hall: 1 – 22 November
The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra has announced details of its 2018 Spring Season. This last leg of the Orchestra’s 2018 World Symphony Series runs in the Durban City Hall each Thursday, between 1 and 22 November, starting at 19h30.
“After a mid-Spring break, we are delighted to welcome back our greatly valued family of music lovers to join us as we continue our celebration of music making in the Durban City Hall,” says Mr Bongani Tembe, the Orchestra’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director.
“In keeping with the tradition of the orchestra’s long-running World Symphony Series, the season features a stellar line-up of new-generation and established international guest artists. These include the return appearances of conductors William Eddins, Justus Frantz, Yasuo Shinazaki and Daniel Boico. Luminaries populating our roster of guest soloists include: the acclaimed young violinist, Rachel Lee Priday; award-winning pianists, Dina Ivanova and Olga Scheps; the celebrated clarinet virtuoso, Robert Pickup; young vocal stars, Linda Nteleza (soprano), Abongile Fumba (mezzo-soprano), Wayne Mkhize (tenor) and Andile Dlamini (bass), who perform with one of our leading choirs, Sounds of Joy. The season dovetails with our ongoing commitment to community engagement and skills transfer among emerging artists and learners.”
American maestro William Eddins, Music Director Emeritus of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, launches the season on 1 November, making his bow alongside the evening’s soloist, violinist Rachel Lee Priday. Acclaimed for her beauty of tone and riveting stage presence, Ms Lee Priday performs Brahms’s magnificent Violin Concerto in D Major. The second half of the evening sees the orchestra paying homage to one of the best loved works of Jean Sibelius, his three-movement Fifth Symphony.
German conductor Justus Frantz takes the podium on 8 November, for an all-Mozart programme. Showcasing the early flowering of the 18th century Austrian composer’s genius, this features performances of the Overture to Lucio Silla; the ground breaking Piano Concerto K 271, a superb debut vehicle to introduce the award-winning young Russian virtuoso, Dina Ivanova; and the Coronation Mass in C Major, a marvelous platform for the evening’s vocal artists to shine. 
Japanese master conductor, Yasuo Shinozaki is at the helm of the KZNPO for its third programme of the season on 15 November. Following a performance of Mendelssohn’s rarely heard Fair Melusina Overture, and Samuel Barber’s serenely beautiful Adagio for Strings, South African-born virtuoso, Robert Pickup, Principal Clarinetist of the Philharmonia Zurich Orchestra, takes the spotlight in Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No 1 in F minor. The programme climaxes with Robert Schumann’s ‘Spring Symphony’, the German Romantic composer’s first symphonic composition, written in 1841 shortly after his happy marriage to the renowned concert pianist, Clara Wieck.
Daniel Boico, KZNPO’s Associate Guest Conductor, rounds off the Spring Season with performances of Mendelssohn’s hugely popular ‘Scottish Symphony’, and Balakirev’s rarely heard Overture on Three Russian Themes, before the acclaimed German-Russian pianist, Olga Scheps takes the Durban City Hall by storm as the evening peaks with one of the international concert-going public’s best loved war-horses, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor.
Season tickets and bookings for individual concerts are through Computicket. For more information call 031-369 9438, email bookings@kznphil.org.za or visit www.kznphil.org.za.

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