Nicky Schrire has just released a new single, Mend Our Love – it’s available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. She’s following up with a gig at Café Roux (74 Shortmarket St, Cape Town) on Thursday, 23 March, 2017. Dinner is from 6.30 and the band is up at 8.30pm. This gig sees Nicky team up with with Ariella Caira, Ryan McArthur and Kevin Gibson.
Another new project is titled ESCAPE: The Ingrid Jonker Suite. This gig will be at The Alexander Bar on Thursday, 20 and Friday, 21 April. Her inspiration in Jonker is echoed here: “She was both a poet and a South African. She was both an Afrikaner and an African. She was both an artist and a human being. In the midst of despair, she celebrated hope. Confronted by death, she asserted the beauty of life.” Nelson Mandela, May 1994
Adds Nicky, “A much-loved figure in South African poetry, Ingrid Jonker’s body of work, though small, continues to speak volumes decades after her death. She delicately and beautifully captured lust, love, heartbreak, anger and the fabric of everyday life in her poems.” Composer and vocalist Schrire sets André Brink and Antjie Krog’s English translations of a selection of Jonker’s works to music in a world that blends folk, cinematic and art song genres. The songs are arranged for voice and string quartet, and actress Jenna Dunster delivers the poems in Afrikaans.
The line-up
Voice Schrire, readings Jenna Dunster, violin Bonolo Kgailev, Violin Sisa Mgauli, viola Lucy Strauss and cello Ariella Caira. The music has been composed and arranged by Nicky.
English translations by André Brink and Antjie Krog (as compiled in Black Butterflies) with borrowed text from letters between Brink and Jonker translated by Karin Schimke (as published in Flame in the Snow).
Who: Nicky Schrire
Café Roux: Thurs, 23 March, 8.30pm, http://caferouxsessions.co.za R100
Alexander Bar: ESCAPE: The Ingrid Jonker Suite, Thurs, 20, Fri 21 April, 7pm, R110, or R100 online, https://alexanderbar.co.za
Web: www.nickyschrire.com, youtube.com/nickyschrire
twitter.com/nickyschrire, Facebook.com/nickyschriremusic
Youtube: Nicky performs “Luck” Live on Expresso Show
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