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Robert Pickup
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Sir Roger Norrington, a leading light on the classical music scene for almost 50 years, will conduct the Zurich Chamber Orchestra with celebrated South African clarinetist Robert Pickup (living in Zurich) as soloist in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Stellenbosch and Cape Town as from next week, 27 January 2013.
In an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, selected members of the South African National Youth Orchestra (NYO) will join them on their tour. More than 50 members of the NYO from all over the country will be performing under the baton of Sir Roger along with the ZKO.
Sir Roger will conduct the opening concert of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival on Mozart’s birthday, Sunday 27 January at 15:00 in the Linder Auditorium, giving regular concertgoers an opportunity of enjoying this world renowned conductor on the podium with this highly acclaimed orchestra, along with members of our very own National Youth Orchestra.
Their following concert is the next evening, Monday 28 January at 19:30 in Pretoria in the ZK Mathews Hall at Unisa’s main campus in Muckleneuk as part of the Unisa Music Foundation Concert Series.
From there Sir Roger and the orchestra will celebrate the Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 30th anniversary with a concert on Tuesday 29 January at the City Hall, Durban at 19:30.
The orchestra will then fly to the Mother City to conduct a concert at the Endler Hall, Stellenbosch as part of the Endler Concert Series on Wednesday 31 January at 20:00.
Their final appearance in the country will be in Cape Town on Monday 1 February at the New Apostolic Church in Silvertown, Athlone at 19:30. This is near the Joseph Stone Auditorium in Athlone.
- Bookings should be done at Computicket. The Johannesburg Concert has been sold out.
The programme for each concert will consist of the following:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Divertimento in D Major K.136
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A Major K.622 with Robert Pickup as solist
- Fabian Müller (1964 -) Labyrinth (2005)
- Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No 5 in C minor Op.67
THE ARTISTS
Sir Roger Norrington
For nearly 50 years Roger Norrington has been at the forefront of the movement for historically informed orchestral playing, and he is arguably one of the world’s greatest conductors. He was knighted in 1997.
Norrington, who was born into a musical family in Oxford, England, sang and played the violin from a young age.
He studied History at Westminster School and English Literature at Cambridge University, where he was a choral scholar. After several years’ of wide experience of top class amateur music making, while working as a publisher of scholarly books, he returned to musical studies at the Royal College of Music in London. This was the start of his professional career as a singer and conductor. He began his conducting career at Cambridge.
He studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Adrian Boult and at the same time founded the ?rst of several groups for the performance of early music, the Heinrich Schütz Choir. This was followed ten years later by the London Classical Players, which achieved worldwide fame with their dramatic recordings of the Nine Beethoven Symphonies. Works by Haydn, Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms, Bruckner, and many others followed, and established Sir Roger Norrington as a key exponent of historical style.
During the 1980s and 1990s Sir Roger was much in demand as a guest conductor (as he still is today). He worked in Britain at Covent Garden and the English National Opera, with the BBC Symphony and the Philharmonia orchestras, and was Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.
In Europe he appears with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, the Orchestre de Paris, and in America with the New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles orchestras.
From 1998 Sir Roger has been Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), and ’ up to summer 2006 ’ of the Camerata Salzburg. Whether with his own London Classical Players in the 1980’s, with his Stuttgart Radio Symphony or Camerata Salzburg in recent years, or with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment from its foundation, he has sought to put modern players in touch with the historical style of the music they play. The work involves orchestra size and seating, tempi, phrasing, articulation and sound.
Since the concert season of 2011/12 Sir Roger is the Principal Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the only federal decoration of Germany, for his collaboration with the RSO Stuttgart.
Robert Pickup -- Clarinet
The South African born Robert Pickup who has been living abroad, and lately in Zurich, Switzerland for several years, is principal clarinetist of the Philharmonia Zürich- Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House.
Before joining the Philharmonia Zürich in 1999, he was co-principal clarinetist of the Brabants Orchestra in Holland and the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC.
Robert is also principal clarinetist of the period instrument orchestra La Scintilla. With this orchestra he has performed on baroque, classical and romantic clarinets, and has appeared as a soloist in major concert halls in Europe and North America. Robert plays as a guest artist in other orchestras, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Concentus Musicus Wien.
Robert attended Pro Arte High School in Pretoria and went on to complete a BMus (musicology) and a Performers' Licentiate at UNISA. His clarinet teachers were Herbert Klein and Mario Trinchero.
Robert won several music competitions in South Africa, including the Sasol Music Prize, the SABC Music Prize, the Jim Joel Scholarship and the UNISA Overseas Scholarship. This enabled Robert to further his studies with Thomas Friedli in Geneva, where he obtained the Diplome de Virtuosite. While studying in Geneva Robert played in the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester and was awarded first prize in the international chamber music competition Decouverte Musicora in Paris.
In addition to his orchestral and solo work, Robert particularly enjoys playing chamber music. He is a member of Ensemble Kontraste Zürich, La Scintilla dei Fiati, Kammer-Solisten Zug and the Swiss Wind Soloists. Robert is an alumnus of the South African National Youth Orchestra.
The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO)
The Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZKO) from Switzerland was established immediately after the Second World War by Edmond de Stoutz, and is one of the leading ensembles of its kind.
Regular invitations to international festivals, performances in the major musical centres of Europe, extended concert tours through various European countries as well as the United States and China bear witness to the Zurich Chamber Orchestra’s worldwide reputation. Numerous critically acclaimed CDs document the ensemble’s artistic work.
During the ten-year leadership of Howard Griffiths, which began in the mid-1990s, the ensemble consolidated its status as a chamber orchestra of international importance. Muhai Tang was appointed the orchestra’s Artistic
Director and Principal Conductor at the beginning of the 2006/07 season.
Besides cultivating a broad repertoire ranging from baroque to classical and from romantic to contemporary music, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra not only frequently attracts attention by rediscovering forgotten composers, but also by collaborating with musicians from other genres such as jazz, folk music and popular entertainment.
The encouragement of young instrumentalists and prospective lovers of classical music (such as concerts for children and families) is important to the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, as is the continuous collaboration with internationally celebrated artists such as Sir Roger Norrington who has been the orchestra’s Principal Conductor from the beginning of the 2011/12 season. www.zko.ch
Their cooperation with members of the National Youth Orchestra on this concert tour, bears witness to that fact.
South African National Youth Orchestra (NYO)
The National Youth Orchestra, has been the training ground for South Africa’s top classical musicians since the late sixties and is South Africa’s national team of youth orchestras.
The aim of the present concert tour is to combine SA’s top young talent with this internationally renowned chamber orchestra where aspiring young musicians can rub shoulders with international professionals and learn from the best.
Generally it is impossible for great international orchestras to tour to South Africa, mainly due to financial considerations. Combining the chamber orchestra with top local young talent gives South African audiences the chance to hear excellent international musicians with some of our finest young talent. It creates an exciting environment for musicians and audiences alike. Hundreds of young musicians from South Africa have been auditioned by expert instrument-specific panels to select the orchestra for the project.
The South African National Youth Orchestra was founded in 1964 under the trees in Hartbeespoortdam with 65 young musicians conducted by the late Prof. Leo Quayle. The aim was to have a place for South Africa’s young musicians to meet and to promote orchestral music. South Africa’s most famous musicians played in the NYO during their youth.
In 1974 the orchestra went on its first international tour to the International Youth Orchestra Festival in Aberdeen. It was followed by more international tours to Europe (as an example appearing at the Beethovenfest in Bonn) and to Israel and Russia, the latter under the leadership of the South African born international conductor Gérard Korsten, himself hailing from the NYO. Well-known international conductors have led them in concert in the past.
The NYO has featured regularly on national television, and by channels like the BBC. The most recent of these was from a concert in 2011 of Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” where the narration was done by none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Apart from the clear advantages of cultural exchange offered by an orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra is a place free from the geographical and financial barriers that continue to separate different South Africans, and is something to be cherished for South Africa’s future. www.sanyo.org.za
The National Youth Orchestra’s Mission
Generally it is impossible for top international orchestras to tour to South Africa, mainly due to financial considerations and the exchange rate making it difficult for promoters from South Africa to secure big names. Their plan is to bypass this by using a chamber orchestra (about the third of a symphony orchestra in size) and then combine it with the best young talent in South Africa to form a full symphony orchestra capable of performing the finest orchestral repertoire. To this end, hundreds of young musicians from South Africa have been auditioned by expert instrument-specific panels to select the cream of the crop for the project.
Before the tour in January 2013 the young musicians played alongside the professionals in workshops under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time.
It is the hope of the two organisations that this partnership will continue year on year to strengthen ties between South African and Swiss musicians, and form a sustainable training and exchange programme. The tour is supported by the Swiss Arts Programme Pro Helvetia, the Rupert Foundation and Sasol who has been supporting the NYO for many years.