Music lovers attending the final round of the 1st Unisa Southern African Wind Instrument Competition on Saturday 6 July were treated to four seldom-heard concertos with orchestra before popular flautist Cobus du Toit was announced as the top contestant.
The young musicians were judged on their complete performance for the duration of four rounds of the competition.
The finalists were Justin Carter on clarinet (28), Cobus du Toit (28) on flute, Matthew Lombard (26) on saxophone and Myles Roberts (21), also on flute. He was the second youngest competitor in the competition.
First on the programme consisted of the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, Op. 57 by Carl Nielsen (1865 – 1931). The late-Romantic work with its haunting Adagio theme was played beautifully by Justin Carter.
Justin Carter is a student of Maria du Toit. He won the chamber category of the ATKV Musiq Competition, the Stellenbosch National Ensemble Competition and the Schock Foundation prize for chamber music in 2012. He has performed with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic and Cape Philharmonic Orchestras.
Flautist Cobus du Toit followed with a brilliant performance of the German composer Carl Reinecke’s Concerto in D major, Op. 283. The composer lived between 1820 and 1869.
Cobus du Toit has recently won the Honors Competition at the University of Colorado, where he is studying towards a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree. In 2010 he was the runner up at the Alexander and Buono International Flute Competition in New York. In South Africa he studied with Ronelle Bosman at Pro Arte Alphen Park arts and music school and John Hinch of the University of Pretoria.
After the interval, Matthew Lombard gave a convincing performance of the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra by Alexander Glazounov (1865-1936), followed by Myles Roberts with the South African composer Hendrik Hofmeyr’s demanding Flute Concerto. Hofmeyr, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Cape Town, was born in 1957.
Saxophonist Matthew Lombard is currently pursuing master degree studies with Bob Buckland at the Royal Northern College of Music in Britain. At the University of Pretoria he studied with Chats Devroop and Brian Smith. He won the Unisa Overseas Music Scholarship for Teachers in 2011. Lombard has performed as soloist with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa.
Flautist Myles Roberts is currently completing a B.Mus. degree at the University of Stellenbosch where he is studying with Corvin Matei, after having started his flute tuition with Vesna Milakovic. He has won some of the major prizes at the ATKV, ABSA, Artscape and the Mabel Quick Music Competitions. He received the Du Toit-Van Tonder Bursary at the Unisa Southern African Music Scholarship Competition in 2008.
The soloists were accompanied by the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra under the baton of Brandon Phillips, whose exceptional performance of the four contrasting and demanding concertos deserves special mention.
After a brief interval where the adjudicators met for a final time, the winners were announced.
The first prize to the value of R60 000 was awarded to Cobus du Toit. He also received the special prizes for the best performance of a contemporary unaccompanied work (Voice for Flute Solo by T. Takemitsu) and the best performance of a South African composition (Imicabango [Impressions] by Alexander Johnson), each valued R2 000.
The second prize of R40 000 was awarded to Matthew Lombard, the third prize of R30 000 to Myles Roberts and the fourth prize of R10 000 to Justin Carter. Carter also won the special prize for the best performance of an accompanied sonata in the second round (Fantasie for Solo Clarinet by J. Widmann), valued R3 000.
Four category prizes of R10 000 each were also awarded: Cobus du Toit for flute, Matthew Lombard for saxophone, Justin Carter for clarinet and Braam van Tonder (26, trumpet) for brass. Van Tonder was not a finalist.
Du Toit, Myles and Carter have gained automatic entry into the First Unisa International Flute and Clarinet Competition scheduled for January 2014.
The most promising semi-finalist who did not go through to the final round was Lerienne Joubert (24) and she was awarded R3 000.
On top of the cash prizes, Lovemore Music and Marshall Music have donated vouchers valued R17 500 to the two top prize winners and category prize winners respectively.
Lastly, Cobus du Toit has received a handcrafted saxophone to the value of R40 000, sponsored by P. Mauriat.
After 30 years of Unisa Music Competitions, this event filled the need for a competition for South African wind instrumentalists.
For further enquiries contact Alet Joubert, Unisa Music Foundation,
Tel: 012 429 3336/3311, Cell: 084 763 4079, www.unisa.ac.za/musicfoundation