19th July 2011
The Eastern Cape Children’s Choir plans to inject warmth of the musical kind into the cold Karoo on the weekend of 22 to 24 July.
After our highly successful tour to Germany, France and Switzerland in September 2010, it was decided to display the children’s wonderful talent to a wider South African audience. Under the leadership of Lionel van Zyl, director of the choir for the past 25 years, the tour hails the beginning of a jam-packed programme for the choir over the next three months. This includes the release of the choir’s 8th CD at the end of July. The majority of the recordings were made immediately after the choir’s return from Europe in 2010 and the CD promises not to disappoint music lovers.
Other performances that local audiences can look forward to, are the annual Prestige Concert in September, a concert with the acclaimed Zürich Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Feathermarket Centre on 16 October and a performance with well-known South African tenor, Jannie Moolman, in Jeffreys Bay at the end of October.
The choir will be performing in the Cradock North Dutch Reformed Church at 19h30 on Friday, 22 July, and can be heard during the morning service in the historic Moederkerk in Graaff-Reinet on Sunday the 24th. Immediately after the service they will give a short performance of secular works.
This year’s repertoire includes music across the entire spectrum of music history with something for each and every audience member. Included are works by Mozart, Schubert, Kodaly, Britten, Fanshawe, as well as arrangements of Afrikaans poems and traditional African music. Included in the programme are works for children’s choir and soloists. Soprano Liske Potgieter, a third year music student at the NMMU, and Paul Leonard, a well-known voice in a number of musical productions, will accompany the choir.
Weekend Post, 16 July 2011
