Baroque delights with our country’s top young musicians

The National Youth Orchestra, SA's symphonic green-and-gold team, is going Baroque at this year’s summer course in Johannesburg. They have three performances in Gauteng this weekend.

The programme includes favourites like Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No 3 and beautiful, rarely performed works like the Noëls, by French composer Louis-Claude Daquin. In contrast to the old music, they will also perform works by Philip Glass and the Penguin Café Orchestra. The ensemble will be led by continuo players John Reid Coulter (Potchefstroom) and Erik Dippenaar (Cape Town).

Jabu Sesing, 20, a student at UFS and a National Youth Orchestra cellist, said: “I’d love the audience to experience the joy and excitement of the music we play.”

The first concert will be on Friday at 7pm, hosted by the Barbara Pretorius Concert Hall at Jan Celliers Primary School in Parkwood. The second concert is on Saturday at 7pm, at the chapel at Nazareth House in Waterkloof, Pretoria.

Tickets for both concerts are R150 (R100 for concessions) and can be booked on Quicket. Every ticket contributes to the musical education of the orchestra members and additional collections will be done on the night. These will go towards the orchestra’s bursary fund for 2020.

On Sunday, they will perform their final concert at the Brixton Church, 43 Putney Road, Brixton, from 3pm-5pm. Donations will be taken at the door. 

The orchestra nurtures the musical development of SA’s finest young musicians, from emerging gifted school-age students to those on the verge of a professional career.

The orchestra’s alumni have been placed in some of the best orchestras in the world and they make up more than 70% of the South Africans placed in local professional orchestras. In existence for more than 50 years, the National Youth Orchestra is one of SA’s most successful music institutions.

For more information visit sanyo.org.za or call 083-272-2117.

• Article provided by Sophia Welz: MD, SA National Youth Orchestra