Maestro takes love of music to global stage
FROM a very early age he knew he loved music and now – armed with years of involvement with the Moravian Church – Devandre Boonzaaier is going global and presenting his academic paper while attending international music festivals.
“I enjoy everything about music and not just a specific facet or aspect. I could not imagine my life without music,” Boonzaaier, 29, said earlier this week.
He was speaking from the United Kingdom, where he had just presented a paper at the Christian Congregational Music Conference, at England’s Oxford University.
Based on his doctoral work on the Mo- ravian Church Music Heritage in South Africa, Boonzaier – a music lecturer at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) – said Moravian music had captivated him since age four.
“At the age of four, I stood up one Sunday and conducted our Moravian Church choir in Uitenhage,” he said.
As a youngster, Boonzaier would insist on listening to Moravian music instead of the radio while driving with his father, Algernon.
After his presentation in England, Boonzaaier flew to the US, invited as an international scholarship recipient to the 25th Moravian Music Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
It was the second time Boonzaaier had attended the Moravian Music Festival in the US, from where he has just returned.
Now a doctoral student at Nelson Mandela University (NMU), Boonzaaier said through his research of Moravian music tradition and heritage in South Africa, he hoped to promote the genre.
“Hence, my reason for presenting the paper at the Christian Congregational Music Conference,” he said.
Holding a Bachelor of Music degree from NMU, passed cum laude, Boonzaaier did his master’s degree in music and has completed performance licentiates in organ and piano through Unisa, Trinity College and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
“As a kid, I always preferred to have a musical instrument as a gift,” he said.
Now living in East London, Boonzaaier said he had always been fascinated by the organ.
“It’s always been the king of instruments in my eyes and ears,” he said.
Also a dab hand on the piano and trumpet, sometimes playing the two simultaneously, Boonzaaier said he found a lot of joy when his younger brother, Gershwin, 24, played the cello alongside him.
As a NMU choir member, Boonzaaier has toured Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic and Argentina.
His faith kept him going, he said.