Cape Town Philharmonic to Perform New Nobel Piece at Artscape National Youth Music Competition, 10/18

THE choral piece for the now postponed Nobel Laureate peace summit in Cape Town will now be heard at the Artscape National Youth Music Competition.

The four minute-long orchestral work, Palladio, by Welsh composer, Karl Jenkins, will now be performed by a combined youth choir and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) and members of the youth orchestra (CPYO) led by Brandon Phillips, during a gala concert at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town on Saturday 18 October.

Before the six finalists vie for top honours in this year's competition, the piece will be performed for the first time in the world. Eddie Clayton of the Johannesburg Youth Philharmonic Orchestra has done the arrangement with lyrics specially written for the Nobel summit by Sibusiso Njeza of the University of the Western Cape Creative Arts Choir.

The 70-year-old Jenkins is the most performed living composer internationally. His orchestral and choral piece, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace has been performed almost a thousand times in 20 different countries.

Known for his crossover compositions, Jenkins was the first international composer to conduct Johannesburg University's Kingsway Choir during his visit to South Africa in 2007 when they performed The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace together with a 70-piece orchestra.

He shot to fame in 1995 with the Adiemus project in which he combined classical with ethnic vocal sounds and percussion into a new genre that has topped classical and pop charts around the world.

"Artscape is honoured to be able to offer a platform for this outstanding piece, following the deferment of the Nobel Laureate conference," says Michael Maas, Chief Executive of Artscape.

"It is a work that reinforces the important role of the performing arts as a unifying vehicle that cuts across cultural, social and political divides through entertainment.

"The Artscape National Youth Music Competition for musicians between the ages of 14 and 19 years is the third largest music competition in the country. It is also the only one where the finalists compete against each other to the accompaniment of the CPO," he says.

This year 18 talented youngsters have been selected during gruelling preliminaries to make it to the final four rounds which are adjudicated by a distinguished panel of musicians and academics.

The finalists' gala concert on 18 October starts at 19:30. Tickets cost R100, while pensioners and students only pay R40. Bookings can be made with Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695, Computicket 0861 915 8000, Shoprite and Checkers outlets, or on line www.computicket.com.

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