Writer’s poem now a ‘unique’ carol
PORT Elizabeth writer Margaret Kollmer has had a poem of hers commissioned as a new Christmas carol in Cape Town.
The carol is titled Christmas in Africa and it was commissioned by Cape Town’s newest choir, VOX Cape Town, under the direction of John Woodland.
The carol, with words by Kollmer and music by Maike Watson of Cape Town, will premiere at two services of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in Cape Town this month.
“A recording of the service will also be broadcast on Cape Town’s Fine Music Radio, with an introduction by well-known broadcaster Rodney Trudgeon,” Kollmer said.
The carol may be heard on Christmas Eve at 6pm on Fine Music Radio at 101.3FM in Cape Town or online at fmr.co.za
“We specially commissioned this work in order to expand the local choral repertoire,” Woodland said.
“This carol sets the scene for a unique and locally relevant celebration of Christmas ‘under a Southern sky’.”
Kollmer is a prolific writer who, as far back as 1970, joined up with the late Clem Tholet, of Port Elizabeth, to win the Best Folk Song category in the South African Song Writing Competition.
A past winner of The Herald’s Christmas “Very Short Story” competition, she moved to PE with her family in 1968, but later returned to her home town of Benoni.
Kollmer moved back to the Bay four years ago and now lives in Fairview.