MUSIC

STEEL DRUM FESTIVAL



Last year proved a very successful year for the Steel Drum Foundation, a project of the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra and led by NPO percussionists Bryan Clarke and Dobri Paliev.

More than 3 000 people attended the 1996 Steel Drum Festival which was held in the Durban Botanic Gardens.

The Bearing Man High School Floating Trophy was again won by Sacred Heart Secondary, with the Sasol Junior School Floating Trophy being awarded to Gordon Road Junior and the NPO Spirit Trophy to Northcrest Primary.

SURPRISE

A surprise gesture by an anonymous donor at the festival was the presentation of R25 000 in prize money. Apart from gaining a melody drum worth R1 200, each winning school got R2 000 - in addition to the R1 000 awarded for each competing school!

Guest artists, the Graeme College Steel Drum Band from Grahamstown, were paid their travelling expenses.

It is with generosity from such sponsors that the arts manage to stay alive. Would there were more of them!

QUARTER

In the last quarter of 1996 the Steel Drum Band gave in the region of 18 school concerts and other performances and appeared regularly on television.

Children normally pay R50 per term for tuition, but it is a Steel Drum Foundation principle that no school is refused teaching where possible. Therefore the SDF is always looking for sponsorship.

D'ARTS editor Caroline Smart produced a fund-raising video for the project and this is available on loan from Bryan Clark on 083 777 6762.

MUSIC ROOMS SPONSOR

One of the major needs identified by artists since the inception of BAT was space in which to rehearse and perform. To this end, BAT created two music practise rooms which musicians can hire by the day.

These rooms, sponsored by the British Council which recently opened its Durban office, are now being used exten-sively by bands and musicians from the experienced to the up-and-coming.

Contact 32-04.

ORGAN RECITAL

The City of Durban administration de-partment's regular free recitals in the City Hall will now only be held every three months because of budget cuts. The next recital is due in March.

CASE, BALL AND SHEARS

Turn the Tide

is a new CD of Christian music by Case, Ball and Shears on the local KZN Sarepta Music label. These three singer/songwriters each have different musical styles and, put together, provide a very pleasing group.

Their accompaniment is well-mixed so as not to over-shadow the singing - as is the case too often nowadays!

The lyrics are sincere and meaningful - particularly The River although The Christian Cowboy appears to be getting much coverage on the radio waves.

Case, Ball & Shears are considered one of the most exciting groups to have appeared on the South African Christian music scene for some time.

LAUNCH OF CO-OPERA

Last month Co-Opera was launched at the BAT Centre with a successful season of Don Giovanni sung in the original Italian with a guiding narrative.

Co-Opera strives towards excellence in opera and is committed to the develop-ment and rise of local singers while spreading awareness of opera to the man in the street in a relevant way.

Director Juan Burgers was chorusmaster of the Napac Singers for five years and is now director of Durban Symphonic Choir. A recipient of the Nederburg Opera Award and the Durban Critics Circle award, he is also choirmaster of the KwaZulu-Natal Chorale.

Co-Opera's hopes to embark on an educational tour of KZN with a scaled down version of Don Giovanni.

Write to Friends of Co-Opera, PO Box 164, Botha's Hill, 3610. Fax 765-6610.

NBS SUNSET PROM

The Natal Philharmonic Orchestra will give another in the popular series of NBS Sunset Proms concerts at the Village Green on February 16 at 17h30.

SA CAROL WINNERS

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) and the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) last year held two competitions to elicit Christmas carols that were "truly South African".

In the DALRO lyric writers' competition, the winners of the joint first prizes were Barbara-Anne Haarhoff for The Rain Carol and Emphrakim Lesoro for Thoholetsang Morena.

Winner of the SAMRO composers' com-petition for the musical setting of these lyrics was Ron Gill, director of music at St Mary's Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg for "his memorably apt setting of The Rain Carol." Mr Gill is an experienced composer of hymns and anthems, some having been published by the Royal School of Church Music.

Second prize of R2 000 went to Roelof Temmingh for a setting of the popular lyric Se dit met Marimba.

The two prize-winning lyrics by Hennie Aucamp and Ephraim Lesoro unfor-tunately did not feature among the top-ranking musical settings.

ADJUDICATORS

Professor Musa Xulu, head of the depart-ment of music at the University of Zululand and also an experienced choral director was on the panel of adjudicators.

Through the friendly co-operation of the SABC it is hoped that the works by Ron Gill and Roelof Temmingh will be per-formed at the end of this year with the National Symphony Orchestra if, of course, it is still in existence.

(The SABC has since announced that it will disband the NSO because it cannot foot its annual R15 million upkeep)

CADENZA

The Natal Philharmonic Orchestra now has its own magazine, Cadenza.

"The idea has been around for some time," says NPO manager Retha Cilliers, "but time and money have been the usual constraints until one of our most ardent supporters decided to help."

This is Ugo Paladini, retired director of publishing at Butterworths, who single-mindedly undertook to generate interest and get the project underway.

"In actual fact we only contributed the odd prod in the direction of director of conductors and orchestra members," adds Retha. "It's truly the NPO supporters' magazine."

Cadenza is available at the Playhouse box office and the NPO programme itself is featured on the Internet.