Towards the end of the month fourteen young musicians will arrive at the Miriam Makeba Concert Hall at Unisa to compete for more than R200 000 in the First Unisa Southern African Wind Instrument Competition. The final round will be comprised of four finalists who will perform a concerto with orchestra on Saturday, 6 July at 19:30. The Johannesburg Festival Orchestra under the baton of Brandon Phillips will perform with the finalists.
The musical abilities and stamina of the young musicians will be tested in four gruelling rounds spread over ten days.
The first and second rounds will take place on 27 June and 29 June respectively. On each day there are three sessions: 09:30, 14:00 and 19:00.
After the second round the first elimination will take place and a maximum of eight candidates will go through to the third round.
The third round, on 2 and 3 July, will consist of a morning session at 10:00 and an afternoon session at 14:00. At this stage all semi-finalists will be required to perform a full one hour recital to qualify of the final round concert.
The contestants are Liam Burden (saxophone, Cape Town), Justin Carter (clarinet, Cape Town), Cobus du Toit (flute, Pretoria), Renée Hartzenberg (flute, Centurion), Lerienne Joubert (flute, Cape Town), Marli Labuschagne (flute, Johannesburg), Visser Liebenberg (clarinet, Trichardt ), Matthew Lombard (saxophone, Pretoria), Luke Newby (clarinet, Johannesburg), André Oosthuizen (flute, Potchefstroom), Myles Roberts (flute, Cape Town), Louisa Theart(flute, Cape Town) Jaco van Staden (French horn, Pretoria) and Braam van Tonder(trumpet, Pretoria).
All rounds are open to the public. Tickets for the first three rounds are sold at the door and cost only R25 and R30 per session.
The final round will take place in the ZK Matthews Great Hall and tickets are sold at Computicket.
For more information please call the Unisa Music Foundation at 012 429 3311 or visit the website: www.unisa.ac.za/musicfoundation.
Luke Newby