This year’s Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF) presents a Grammy award-winning maestro and a special collective of internationally celebrated conductors and musicians.
The SICMF has always presented an eclectic combination of old and new. This is as true of the repertoire presented as it is of the performing artists featured. SICMF 2024 will be hosted from 5 to 14 July, 2024, at the US Konservatorium in Stellenbosch.
World-stars who will be making their South African debut at the 2024 SICMF include maestros, Michael Repper and Simeone Tartaglione. Repper’s album with the New York Youth Symphony, featuring debut recordings of works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman achieved widespread critical acclaim, reached #1 on the Billboard Chart, and won a Grammy® Award, marking the first time a youth orchestra has ever achieved this milestone. Compatriot, Simeone Tartaglione currently holds a number of positions in the USA including at the Catholic University in Washington DC, Music Director of the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, Conductor of the Symphony at the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras at Strathmore Hall and Artistic Director of Musica Viva Kentlands.
Other showcase artists
New internationally acclaimed instrumental artists include Anna Vasileva who started playing the violin at the age of 4, and who more recently regularly performed as a member of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and the Orchestra of Opernhaus Zürich.
Fedor Belugin is a violist, conductor and artist of the David Oistrakh String Quartet as well as a laureate of a number of international competitions. Zoran Marković, also an international competition laureate, is a double bass virtuoso who has performed at numerous festivals including the Aspecte Salzburg, Neuebühne Villach, and Kuhmo Chamber Music Festivals to name a few.
Ekaterina Kornishina, who started the flute at the age of 4, regularly participates in international music festivals in France, Norway, Germany, Israel, Russia, Greece, Austria and Italy. Ivy Ringel is the principal bassoonist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra who prior to serving as guest principal bassoonist for a number of orchestras, held academic appointments at Indiana University, Butler University and Morehouse College.
Emanuil Ivanov, who first attracted international attention after receiving the first prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition in Italy, is not visiting South Africa for the first time. This is however his first invitation to serve on the faculty of the SICMF. Ivanov has given critically acclaimed recitals and concerto performances in Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, South Africa, the UK and Poland.
Peter Martens, SICMF Director says “No where else in South Africa will you find such a collective of internationally celebrated musicians. These people are all in demand at the world’s most prestigious chamber music festivals. When they perform right here in Stellenbosch, the atmosphere is electric and the audience response, terrific. You don’t need to go to Aspen or Verbier – Just come to Stellenbosch!”
Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival tickets range from R150 to R230 for the evening concerts that take place in the Endler Hall from 5 to 14 July. Buy them here.
SICMF student concerts, master classes and lectures also take place daily in the Fismer and Janasch Halls and are free of charge for Festival Pass holders for the duration of the festival. For daily patrons, R30 tickets are available at the door.
Artists from past editions of the SICMF that have captured the hearts of audiences include Daniel Roland, Nicolas Dautricourt, Madeline Adkins and Andrey Baranov (violin), Boris Andrianov and Maja Bogdanović (cello), YaoGuang Zhai (clarinet), Dwight Parry (oboe), Marco Silva (trumpet) and Jauvon Gilliam (percussion).
What: Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival
When: 5 to 14 July 2024
Where: US Konservatorium, Stellenbosch
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