Credo is a ground-breaking new multimedia oratorio to be performed at UNISA’s ZK Matthews Great Hall in Pretoria on 18, 19 and 21 July 2013, in celebration of the university’s 140th anniversary. The well-known enterprising Afro-classical composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen (37) from Cape Town is responsible for the music, his second world première for the year, following a piano concerto in February.
The world will take place on former President Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. Credo is based on the unifying values embodied in South Africa’s Freedom Charter, and is intended to be a musical reflection of the social vision enshrined in that historic document. Based on the belief that South Africa has a historical and cultural obligation to share the legacy of the Freedom Charter with the world, it is hoped that Credo will be an important contribution to the growing body of 21st century artistic work based on the struggles, triumphs and victories of the country’s turbulent history.
The creative team behind Credo is award-winning South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen, novelist Brent Meersman, multimedia artist Andrew Black and producers Brenda Sisane and Shadrack Bokaba. Together they have created a 67 minute production that explores the endurance of the human spirit over adversity through a soaring fusion of African lyricism and rhythms with symphonic tradition.
The strong cast will be led by mezzo soprano Sibongile Khumalo, bass Otto Maidi and mezzo soprano Monika Wassung. They will be accompanied by 40 members of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the internally known young German maestro Jonas Alber. Six of the top music students of Unisa will form a small “banda” and perform separately from the orchestra during the oratorio.
The composer
Bongani Ndodana-Breen: Founder & Creative Director at Pina Ya Thari, is an award-winning composer with many years of international experience who has produced a number of critically acclaimed creative projects in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has worked as a composer, conductor, opera producer and arts administrator serving on artistic juries and boards in the US, Canada and South Africa.
The conductor
Jonas Alber has been called an unparalleled magician of sound, and has been praised for a maturity that seems unimaginable for such a young conductor. When he was appointed General Music Director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig in 1998, he became the youngest conductor in Germany to hold such a post.
Today he is much in demand as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras and opera companies in every part of the globe. As an operatic conductor, Alber has conducted roughly 500 performances of more than 50 operas. His repertoire ranges from traditional operas by Mozart, Puccini, and Richard Strauss to numerous new productions and premieres.
The singers
Known as South Africa’s first lady of song, multi-talented, soulful and dynamic, Sibongile Khumalo (mezzo soprano) has enchanted diverse audiences all over South Africa and beyond. She interprets with integrity and poise a variety of musical genres: from traditional South African township jazz to Classical Western overtures.
Khumalo’s immense musical capacity launched her into the limelight when she won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown in 1993. She has since performed with numerous celebrated groups and artists and has graced a variety of honoured occasions, amongst them then President Nelson Mandela’s 75th Birthday and 1994 Inauguration. It is her amazing sense of “situatedness” that informs her interpretations in every genre, and makes her an ideal voice to bring CREDO: A Testament to the Freedom Charter to life.
Otto Maidi (bass) began singing at a tender age of eight in his church’s Sunday school and at his school. He went on to sing in various community choirs before joining the Pretoria State Theatre Chorus and the Pro Musica Opera Chorus.
His debut as Zeno’s father in both William Kentridge’s musicals “Zeno@4am” and “Confessions of Zeno” saw him performing in the U.S and Europe; and as a result Maidi began his journey of becoming a classical singer. His training under Pierre du Toit at the Pretoria Technikon Opera School, and at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, (where he obtained his Artist Certificate Degree in Vocal Performance under Prof. Barbara Hill-Moore) has stood him in good stead.
Maidi has performed extensively, and continues to sing in a variety of musical styles. He is at home on both opera and concert stages; and hailed for his warm buttery tone and pure, bell-like quality.
Monika Wassung (mezzo soprano) is Head of Music at Herzlia Middle School, and performs freelance as a singer in various genres. She recently completed a two year post in The Cape Town Opera Studio as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Opera at The University of Cape Town. She was awarded a scholarship to study at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm, was a semi-finalist and prize-winner in The South African Music Rights Organization Singing Competition (Samro), and won a bursary for overseas study from The National Arts Council.
Wassung recently spent time in Germany taking part in the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and worked with International choirs, conductors and orchestras. She has also started the popular company: ‘Sing for your supper’ - an organisation that combines dinner parties with a narrated opera concert, held all over South Africa at wine farms and event venues.
The producer
Brenda Sisane: Managing Director at Pina Ya Thari, is a former broadcaster with over 15 years of experience in Public Relations and Event Management. Ms Sisane has a wide range of project and event management experience and has rendered her services to both the private and public sectors. Some of her clients include the SABC, Provincial Governments, SA Millennium Trust and the office of the SA Presidency.
Credo will have three performances during its world premire run on July 18, 19 and 21, 2013 in the ZK Matthews Great Hall at UNISA, marking the 140th year of the founding of UNISA. Tickets cost R60 to R200, and are available through Computicket.
In addition to the performances, a schools and community education programme has been established. For more information on the project, please see www.credo-freedomcharter.com
The Freedom Charter is one of the key “founding” documents of a democratic South Africa and is regarded by many as second only to the constitution in the country’s hierarchy of political documents. Adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955, the Freedom Charter was the culmination of a long nation-wide, non-racial political consultative process in the country.
Pina Ya Thari is a company created and co-owned by Bongani Ndodana-Breen and Brenda Sisane, by a bold creative vision to develop, produce and promote original classical music and opera influenced by Africa’s creative arts and indigenous musical idioms.
They also foot the bill for all expenses for the staging of the oratorio, including the JPO.
They pride themselves in their commitment to produce high quality, accessible performances that expand on our nation’s rich tapestry of indigenous vocal music and choral singing. “We seek to bring new opera and classical music to a wider South African and international audience, telling our own stories, in our own languages thus claiming these art forms as our own,” they say.
UNISA - Celebrating 140 years of shaping futures.
Unisa reaches a milestone in its history in 2013 when it celebrates its 140th anniversary. The university community will engage in a rich variety of celebratory activities to mark this milestone.
Unisa was founded in 1873 as the University of Good Hope. It operated initially as an examining body and in 1916 changed its name to the University of South Africa (Unisa). In 1946 Unisa became the first public university in the world to teach exclusively by means of distance education.