Choral festival harmonies to honour legacy of Mandela
ESTABLISHED in 2009 with a special focus on collaboration and service, Classical Movements’ extraordinary Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival features a diversity of international choirs performing for effusive audiences in every venue imaginable. Over the past decade, Ihlombe! has featured nearly 90 choirs from 10 countries across South Africa.
From July 1 to 20, the 10th anniversary edition of Ihlombe! will honour the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Peace Prize-winning icon Nelson Mandela.
In the spirit of Madiba’s prized ideals of “Hope, Freedom and Unity”, select youth and collegiate choirs from five major American cities – Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, DC – will perform 13 collaborative concerts with more than 15 African youth, church and community ensembles, exchanging cultures through shared workshops, side-by-side rehearsals and outreach projects.
On July 18 at 6 pm at the historic St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, the 10th annual Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival’s “Mandela at 100: Voices of Hope, Freedom and Unity” celebration will feature individual performances from all participating ensembles, as well as two world premieres commissioned by Classical Movements’ Eric Daniel Helms New Music Programme for the 2018 Ihlombe! mass choir, conducted by world-renowned Sidumo Nyamazele, Africa specialist at the University of Johannesburg Choir.
Decorated University of KwaZuluNatal professor Phelelani Mnomiya has composed a powerful version of Madiba’s famous “It’s In Your Hands Now” speech, delivered on his 90th birthday during the 46664 Aids charity concert at London’s Hyde Park.
Penning his own text for the second Ihlombe! mass choir commission, award-winning University of the Western Cape professor Sibusiso Njeza’s Uthando
Nomculo (“Love and Music”) piece urges us all, in his words, “to love more, to see beyond the colour of one’s skin, religion and sexuality”.
Mandela’s memory outside South Africa is vividly associated with the ideals of hope, freedom and unity.
The two World Premieres commissioned for the festival and the ensembles selected for this year’s Ihlombe! festival represent the celebration of these ideals and Mandela’s commitment to reconciliation.
Mandela at 100: Voices of Hope, Freedom and Unity, on July 18 at St George’s Cathedral in Wale Street, Cape Town, includes the Atlanta Young Singers; iGugu le Kapa Chamber Choir; Kensington Chorale Girls’ Choir; Mt San Antonio College Choir; Seattle Children’s Chorus; Baltimore Singing Sensations Youth Choir; and the South African Youth Choir. Tickets are R60, or R30 for pensioners and students, via quicket.co.za