Following a spectacular inaugural national tour in 2022, the stage is set to celebrate the highly anticipated second national tour of Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, which is scheduled to run in Women’s Month from August 10 to August 14, 2023.
The tour will be led by Marin Alsop, the first woman conductor to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the US, UK, South America and Austria with soloist Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, the award-winning Limpopo-born soprano who is the current BBC Radio 3 New Generation artist, winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World, and Daily Maverick’s Artist of the Year runner up for 2022.
The August dates follow the acclaimed orchestra’s three-city inaugural tour which played to sold-out houses in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in December 2022.
This year’s itinerary will see Mzansi Philharmonic performing in Johannesburg on Thursday, August 10 at the Linder Auditorium at 19h30pm; in Cape Town on Saturday, August 12 at the Cape Town City Hall at 19h30pm and in Gqeberha on Monday, August 14 at the Feather Market Centre at 18h30pm.
Bongani Tembe, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, says: “Our audiences will be delighted to hear that Marin Alsop will return for this year’s tour, following her sensational appearances last year. We are thrilled that the highly accomplished South African dramatic soprano, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, will be our soloist for 2023; Cecilia has a special talent coupled with a warm heart and personality.”
The repertoire to be performed in all three centres includes an operatic first half, featuring beautiful and dramatic arias followed, after the intermission, by Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 5.
Says Alsop: “Following our successful tour last year, I’m very excited to return to South Africa, a country rich in culture and heritage. It is a joy to work with musicians who are committed to excellence and to perform for enthusiastic audiences from diverse backgrounds. This is a country which demonstrates music’s unique power to bring people together, and I love the way Mzansi Philharmonic embodies this quality.”
The Mzansi Philharmonic was launched in 2022, as part of an initiative of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to broaden the orchestral experience of the country, transform the orchestral sector and to brand South Africa positively around the world. The Orchestra consists of up to 110 non-permanent musicians who are drawn from regional orchestras, universities, and freelance musicians.
“We are excited to celebrate Women’s Month in South Africa with this national tour. The Mzansi Philharmonic is rapidly earning a reputation for its diversity on every level: our programmes feature artists and musicians who are representative of our rainbow nation, showing music’s unique ability to bring people together across gender, age, race and class,” said the Mzansi Philharmonic’s Chairperson, Justice Leona Theron.
Justice Theron added: “I am particularly pleased that Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra is achieving its mission of broadening the orchestral experience of South Africa, supporting established and emerging orchestras in many parts of the country, including the Eastern Cape, Free State, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and North West.”
Tickets for the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2023 National Tour are now on sale from Quicket. Call 021 424 9308 or log onto https://quicket.co.za
Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra
During the latter part of 2021, the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra (Mzansi Philharmonic) was properly constituted as a non-profit company (Section 30) with a distinguished Board of Directors. In July 2022, after many months of preparation, engagement with national and international partners and the establishment of business plans and protocols, South Africa’s first national orchestra in the democratic era was officially launched by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
As articulated in the Revised White Paper, which was approved by cabinet in August 2018 and endorsed by parliament in February 2020: “Harnessing the arts, culture and heritage for creative expression, education and training, job creation, and the eradication of poverty through close cooperation with all the levels of government and related departments, as well as the international community, is an essential aspect of the transformation process. Moving into the future, we are resolved to ensure that the arts, culture and heritage, contribute to change and the creation of a better life for all.”
The orchestra comprises the cream of South African musicians who have earned a reputation for excellence and innovation in their fields. The Board of Directors is led by Justice Leona Theron of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, supported by highly accomplished leaders Wendy Luhabe, Prof. Muxe Nkondo, and Bongani Tembe. The Mzansi Philharmonic is funded through a public/private partnership, which includes an annual grant from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, administered through the National Arts Council of South Africa. The Mzansi Philharmonic also collaborates with national and international partners to achieve its mandate.
The Mzansi Philharmonic is managed by Bongani Tembe, a Juilliard School graduate who returned to South Africa in 1994. Tembe is also the Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestras.
Marin Alsop
One of the foremost conductors of our time, Marin Alsop represents a powerful and inspiring voice. Convinced that music has the power to change lives, she is internationally recognised for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, deep commitment to education and championing of music’s importance in the world. The first woman to serve as the head of a major orchestra in the US, South America, Austria and the UK, she is, as The New York Times puts it, not only “a formidable musician and a powerful communicator” but also “a conductor with a vision”. Now in her third season as Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alsop leads the orchestra at Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and on recordings, broadcasts and tours. As Chief Conductor and Curator of Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, she curates and conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s summer residencies, formalising her long relationship with Ravinia, where she made her debut with the orchestra in 2002.
Appointed in 2020 as the first Music Director of the National Orchestral Institute + Festival (NOI+F), a programme of the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, she has launched a new academy for young conductors and conducts multiple concerts each June with the NOI+F Philharmonic. As 2021-22 Harman/Eisner Artist-in-Residence of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, she draws on her wealth of experience as an artist and thought leader to engage in critical discussions about key social and civic issues, participating in programming and other activities in Aspen, New York, Washington DC and nationwide. At the close of the 2020-21 season, Alsop assumed the title of Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, where she continues to conduct the orchestra for three weeks each season. During her outstanding 14-year tenure as its Music Director, she led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years, released multiple award-winning recordings, and conducted more than two dozen world premieres, as well as founding OrchKids, a groundbreaking music education programme for Baltimore’s most disadvantaged youth. In 2019, after seven years as Music Director, Alsop became Conductor of Honour of Brazil’s São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), where she continues conducting major projects each season.
Deeply committed to new music, she was Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years, over the course of which she led 174 premieres.
Alsop has longstanding relationships with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras, and regularly guest conducts such major international ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, La Scala Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In collaboration with YouTube and Google Arts & Culture, she spearheaded the “Global Ode to Joy” (GOTJ), a crowd- sourced video project to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary.
Together with Germany’s official Beethoven anniversary campaign and the leading arts organisations of five continents, she invited the global community to share the call for tolerance, unity and joy of the composer’s Ninth Symphony in videos tagged #GlobalOdeToJoy. The project culminated in December 2020, the month of Beethoven’s birth, with a grand video finale: a GOTJ highlight reel, set to a performance of the “Ode to Joy” anchored by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, the international Stay-at-Home Choir and Alsop herself.
Recognised with BBC Music ‘Album of the Year’ and Emmy nominations in addition to Grammy, Classical BRIT and Gramophone awards, Alsop’s discography comprises more than 200 titles. These include recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi and Sony Classical, as well as her acclaimed Naxos cycles of Brahms with the London Philharmonic, Dvo?ák with the Baltimore Symphony, and Prokofiev with the São Paulo Symphony. Recent releases include a live account of Bernstein’s Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and a Hindemith collection that marks her first recording as Chief Conductor of the Vienna RSO.
Recognised with multiple Gramophone Awards, Alsop’s extensive discography includes recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi and Sony Classical, as well as acclaimed Naxos cycles of Brahms with the London Philharmonic, Dvo?ák with the Baltimore Symphony, and Prokofiev with the São Paulo Symphony. Committed to new music, she was Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music for 25 years. The first and only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, Alsop has also been honored with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award and made history as the first female conductor of the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms.
Amongst many other awards and academic positions, she served as 2020 Artist-in-Residence at Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts, is Director of Graduate Conducting at the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute and holds Honorary Doctorates from Yale University and the Juilliard School. To promote and nurture the careers of her fellow female conductors, in 2002 she founded the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, which was renamed in her honor as the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship in 2020. The Conductor, a documentary about her life, debuted at New York’s 2021 Tribeca Film Festival.
Masabane Cecelia Rangwanasha
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha is an extraordinary soprano based in Europe and South Africa. In 2021 she won the Song Prize and reached the Main Prize final of the world famous Cardiff Singer of the World competition where she was described as “transcendental”, a word which has followed her talent.
Masabane Cecilia started singing at an early age at her beautiful mother’s knee in Limpopo province. Her great enthusiasm for life and remarkable voice sets her apart and her career is already an inspiration. She has also been praised at a young age for her charity work with cancer sufferers in Johannesburg. Masabane Cecilia’s acclaimed performances have been described as ‘terrific’, ‘outstanding’, ‘richly coloured’, ‘vivid’, ‘glorious’, ‘ravishing’ and ‘tantalising’. Her charm is her African warmth and strength of adventure as she travels the world in pursuit of her passion which already has great professional foundations with opera’s finest including Sir Antonio Pappano at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In London, Masabane Cecilia was invited to the world renowned Jette Parker Young Artists Programme for the 2018/21 Season, in Covent Garden at the Royal Opera House, having finished her training in the University of Cape Town and the Artist Programme at Cape Town Opera. In 2020, Masabane Cecilia’s performances in London won her many admirers and great reviews and at the close of that year she was invited to perform in Moscow for the 30-year centenary of the Helicon Opera. In the Autumn of 2021, Masabane Cecilia joined the Konzert Theater Bern for two seasons.
In the 2022/23 season Masabane Cecilia performed the roles of Mathilde Guilliame Tell and the title role in Iphigenie en Tauride at Theater Bern and is set to return to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden as Liù Turandot conducted by the great Sir Antonio Pappano.
On the concert platform, Masabane Cecilia will perform Mendelssohn’s Lobegesang at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied at Theater Bern, Elgar’s The Apostles with the Hallé Orchestra. She has already made her US debut with the Washington Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony for Barber’s Knoxville. She has also given solo recitals at Wigmore Hall and Opéra National de Bordeaux. Future seasons will see a series of exciting house and role debuts, including Staatsoper Hamburg, Semperoper Dresden and returns to the Royal Opera House and on the concert platform with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony and Chicago Symphony.
Masabane Cecilia is a current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.
Release courtesy of JAG Communications.
Video: Internationally acclaimed conductor Marin Alsop returns to South Africa to conduct Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring soloist soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
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