Six finalists, among whom three Russians, will play six different concertos in the two final rounds on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 February of the 1st Unisa International Flute and Clarinet Competition in the ZK Matthews Great Hall at Unisa in Pretoria.
Two of the Russians are flautists while the other one is a clarinettist. Three finalists are flautists and three clarinettists.
The only South African among the semi-finalists, flautist Cobus du Toit, unfortunately did not qualify for the finals.
The finalists are Matvey Demin (Russia, flute), Sang Yoon Kim (Republic of Korea, clarinet), Angelo Montanaro (Italy, clarinet), Alexey Morozov (Russia, flute), Lilja Steininger (Germany, flute) and Valentin Uryupin (Russia, clarinet).
The musicians will perform with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the British conductor Julian Clayton.
On Friday 14 February Montanaro, Morozov and Uryupin will play Allan Stephenson’s Concertino Pastorale forclarinet, Mozart’s Flute Concerto K 313 and the Clarinet Concerto no 2 by Carl Maria von Weber respectively. Steininger, Kim and Demin will perform Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and the Flute Concerto by Jacques Ibert on Saturday 15 February.
The prize winners will be announced after the jury has voted for the last time on Saturday night.
Tickets are sold at Computicket and the concerts start at 19:00.
For more information please call the Unisa Music Foundation at 012 429 3311 or visit the website: www.unisa.ac.za/musicfoundation.