| Dear Friends
Last week Stellenbosch was ablaze with incredible music making at the annual International Chamber Music Festival. Over 200 students from all over the country came to Stellenbosch to have chamber music coachings, masterclasses, talks AND an orchestral course which culminates on the final weekend with the Festival and Concert Orchestra concerts. If you were not able to attend – I urge you to check out the evening concerts via the sicmf youtube channel to see some incredible chamber music performed by some of the worlds top musicians, followed by 3 orchestral concerts over the weekend. These groups of young musicians only found out which orchestra and part they would play on the first day of the festival (after submitting recorded auditions) and with all the other festival events they had only a week to rehearse and I feel sure you will be as blown away by the results as I was. In light of the recent visit of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra – the Chamber Festival Orchestras proved that the local talent is right up there with the finest in the world! There were a number of students that could only attend the Festival due to the assistance from FOM and we thank you for being part of such projects. One was Rory Africa who is also busy raising funds to study his masters at Birmingham later this year. We also caught up with bassoonist Liam Slabbert who received funding from FOM last year to purchase a new crook for his bassoon. (see photos below)
The music plays on – the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra completed their winter symphony season on a high with pianist Dmitry Shishkin. If you missed any of the concerts they are now being broadcast each Thursday on Fine Music Radio from 7pm. The CPO are now busy with a sold out production of Swan Lake before starting CT City Ballet’s Don Quixote plus school concerts. If you are interested in the processes behind composition, you might want to join the composers workshop happening on July 21 online via Zoom. Email us at info@fomct.com for more details. Then before we know it the Spring Symphony Season will begin. If you are a regular subscriber you can renew your subscription through Dial-A-Seat seats now, before general booking opens on July 19th. Rehearsal tickets will also be on sale from the 19th.
We are busy finalising details for our next FOM Soiree in collaboration with Bowmans. These special evenings highlight the incredibly talented young musicians we have here, and we will again include a preview of the upcoming CPO Season. All the funds raised at the soirees goes directly to supporting the portfolios of FOM. Details coming soon.
Kind regards
Friends of Orchestral Music, Cape Town
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