PETA STEWART
Business is booming for Chad Hendricks, the conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in two upcoming concerts.
He’ll conduct the CPO in its Huberte Rupert Memorial on 30 November 2018 at the Endler Hall in Stellenbosch, and the Heavenly Quartez 10th anniversary celebration with on 2 December 2018 at Artscape.
Chad Hendricks was the third winner of the Len van Zyl Conductors’ Competition in 2016 and will be conducting the orchestra at the finals on 10 February 2019 when the jury is out deliberating.
So what did winning the Len van Zyl competition do for him?
“It played an integral role in getting to understand what a conducting career may look like. It has allowed me to realize dreams I never knew I had and it has been part of cementing a basis from which to build.”
He has been building!
He conducted the Heavenly Quartez concert in Khayelitsha earlier this year, and has just completed working on the new South Africa musical, Calling us Home, where he was assistant music director and conductor.
He is also the chorus master of the NAC choir which is participating in the Duet Endowment Trust’s Verdi Requiem, and is completing a postgraduate diploma in conducting at UCT.
“More and more, I realize that my creative/artistic fulfillment lies in making music that makes a difference. I don’t want that to sound corny! I want to be part of the new era of South African classical music, and contribute whatever I can to positively impact people’s lives, mindset and dreams,” he says.
“I’m incredibly grateful because everything I continue to do becomes special and unique in its own way. I love that I get to be working on and performing constantly changing repertoire and so this means I continue to learn – a vital part of life for me.”
“ I have developed a real love for musical theatre and I would love to be more involved in that sphere.”
In December Chad Hendricks will also conduct at the South African National Youth Orchestra in Cape Town and then take a break. Getting ready to start work on his master’s degree in music at the University of Pretoria, to conducting the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in the Fiesta awards in February, conducting another Heavenly Quartez performance in March at the Oude Libertas, and to conducting the New Apostolic Church orchestra in the Verdi Requiem in Athlone at the Silvertown Auditorium on 14 April 2019.
It’s appropriate that Hendricks is also conducting the NAC Orchestra because it was with the NAC that he began his musical journey when he was six. That’s when he learned to play the recorder and also joined the choirs and started conducting.
He also learned to play the violin at school, and went on to the trumpet in high school. He has also conducted the Cape Town Ghoema Orchestra and played trumpet in seven-piece Grassy Spark, that he had to leave due to continued conducting commitments.
But for now it seems that conducting consumes his life and Cape Town is all the better for it!
More music in Cape Town: https://weekendspecial.co.za/whats-on-in-cape-town-music-diary/
Who: Conductor Chad Hendricks
What: CPO Huberte Rupert Memorial, Heavenly Quartez 10th anniversary concerts
Where: Endler Hall / Artscape Theatre
When: 30 November 2018, 8pm, 2 December 2018, 4pm
Info, book: http://bit.ly/PieterSchoeman / http://bit.ly/HQCPO
WS
