WeeklySA_AdminMASTERCLASSES: The national ensemble to engage with education and community music centres in Cape Town and Gqeberha…
By Own Correspondent
The 85-piece strong Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra has arrived in Cape Town, following their highly successful full-house opening night at the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg.
Bongani Tembe, the orchestra’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director said: “We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to our event in Johannesburg and would like to thank our audiences for their support. Mzansi Philharmonic is passionate about bringing people together through the power of music, and the concert in Johannesburg was no exception.”
In addition to flagship performances, the orchestra is also utilising the tour to further its community impact, broadening the orchestra experience of young musicians. In Cape Town, some of its musicians will visit the Hugo Lambrecht Music Centre where young music students from the centre and other partner organisations (including Handevat Music and the Western Cape Youth Orchestra) will have the opportunity to receive masterclasses from Mzansi Philharmonic musicians. In addition, musicians from the orchestra will also visit Beau Soleil — a specialised music education and training centre in Cape Town.
“We’re determined that our partnerships with various orchestras and youth music programmes should extend beyond mere financial support. We’re committed to link arms and work together in creating a successful orchestral ecosystem in the country.” said Tembe.
In Gqeberha, the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra will host a community concert at the Feather Market Centre on the morning prior to its performance. More than 500 learners from around 14 schools are expected to join the event. At this concert, which will be conducted by Kutlwano Masote, the orchestra will perform classical favourites and explain how the orchestra works through instrument demonstrations of each orchestral section.
The Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra’s South African tour, Powerful Harmony, continues in Cape Town at the City Hall tonight and in Gqeberha at the Feather Market Centre on Monday, August 14. The programme, which features soprano star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha performing popular arias from grand operas in the first half, and Mahler’s iconic Symphony No. 5 in the second, will be conducted by dynamic U.S. conductor, Joseph Young.
Tickets for Cape Town and Gqeberha are still available through Quicket.
EL JAMES’S UP TO HIS EARS WITH USUAL DEBAUCHERY
THRILLS: it’s a story of love overcoming class and other adversities, with the author’s signature drippings of carnal tensions to sizzle delivery…
By Amanda Ngudle
After the runaway success of EL James’ 50 Shades trilogy, it has always been my wish to read a porn-free work of art but, alas, it was not to be found in this book.
It falls under the erotic novel because sex sells and, I believe the lates EL James, real name Erika Lenard, tome is on the shelves by popular demand and that her readers are born every day. Hence, forget finding any other thrill from this offering.
Without the sex scenes, the book is flat dull, compounded by repetition and hindsight. It starts off with a complex nightmare, a total mind distress. Fresh out of that, we learn Maxim, an Earl, (yes a billionaire, otherwise a controlling behaviour freak, compounded by sexual nymphomania sounds like sex slavery from an ordinary man), recounts his blessings for having rescued his fiancée, a former domestic worker of his.
The only threat is her father who seems so dangerous at first you expect him to unleash a gun from underneath a table and shoot someone in the forehead. It turns out he is just overprotective.
In a nutshell, it’s a story of love overcoming class and other adversities, a subject very close to James who has sold over 200 million books on the subject matter. Her research on the dynamics is deft and she reins you in all that wealth and what it can buy a girl. How many times I wished to be Alissia! I do have a problem with how she unpeels her characters because they slowly shed their feathers.
Take for instance Alissia’s father keeps saying she is Maxim’s problem now and until the last word there is not one instance that paints her in a dim light. Also, it was the sailor’s mouth (thoughts) that defy his aristocratic game that got into me. A lord of such profanity, I have never heard of or met. Then the obscene wealth against the age of billionaire Maxim Trevelyan’s age which cannot be 30. Granted, it’s generational wealth but he does not seem to have done anything before the death of his elder brother by way of contribution. He seems startled by it too, always mentioning brand names, castles, and cars in all their wonderment and stuff that the wealthy take for granted. Then there is Alissia’s concealed age leaving her to be 22 with the sexual zest of an experienced 35-year-old woman. I almost did not finish it but I’m glad I did. The ending was fulfilling if a little unexpected, given it had been a lull throughout.
