04 December 2013 Volume :1 Issue :14
UKZN’s Year-End Recital Hailed as a Grand Affair
UKZN’s Opera Studio and Choral Academy senior students who performed at their Opera year-end recital event at the Jubilee Hall. The School of Arts, Music Discipline at UKZN recently held its Opera year-end recital event at the Jubilee Hall which saw many avid Opera lovers attend. The senior students of the Discipline performed with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Naum Rousine with renowned storyteller Ms Gcina Mhlope as the Emcee.
‘This is a great platform and encourages our students to work harder,’ said Mr Lionel Mkhwanazi, a Voice Lecturer at UKZN’s Opera Studio and Choral Academy. Mkhwanazi is also a celebrated Tenor opera voice and has won several accolades.
He further added, ‘Ikhwezi- as we call this event- highlights the aim of the event. Ikhwezi is a morning star, that shines bright introducing the day, and it’s known as a star that leads you home.’
He also pointed out that the 2013 year-end recital programme is crafted to create a platform to showcase students to the industry, the private sector, government and the media with such events proving to encourage versatility, collaborations and mentorship.
Mr Andrew Warburton, Acting Director and Academic Adviser at The Opera Studio and Choral Academy, pointed out that the students sung exciting arias from opera with these performances also being examined as part of the students’ final recitals in voice performance.
‘The renowned icon Mbongeni Ngema whose song Stimela Sasezola became and still is part of the psyche of a broader South Africa and made a guest appearance with his song Stimela Sasezola that was orchestrated by one of our students, Mr Siphesihle Manana,’ said Warburton.
Twenty four-year-old Manana, from Fairview in eMpangeni, Northern KwaZulu-Natal, is working towards his Master’s degree in composition under the mentorship of Professor Jurgen Brauninger.
Manana said: ‘It was such an honour yet also a nerve wrecking experience to work with the great KZNPO on a song that belongs to an internationally acclaimed creator and producer of great productions such as Woza Albert, Asinamali, Sarafina, Lion of the East and many more.’
Professor Brauninger said: ‘It was a special evening for everyone, especially our students, being accompanied by the world renowned KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. Performing a great South African composition like Stimela Sasezola, songs that still mean and holds lots of memories for a greater part of South Africa can only bring the orchestra even closer to the hearts of all people of South Africa, and a great showcase for our senior students.’
He also highlighted that the UKZN Music Discipline has produced some of the country’s well-known artists today such as Professor Bronwen Forbay, Lukhanyo Moyakhe, Lauren Dasappa Harris, Nozuko Teto, Edward Phiri, Dr Mageshen Naidoo, Concord Nkabinde, Guy Buttery, Dr Sazi Dlamini, Andile Yenana, Feya Faku, Marc Duby, Victor Masondo, the late Zim Ngqawana and Black Coffee, who studied at UKZN and have made their mark nationally and internationally.
- Melissa Mungroo
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