A former professional soccer player turned double-bassist and a respected anti-apartheid icon are among the performers at the 13th annual Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF), which runs from 1 to 10 July 2016.
Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Music Department has presented this festival, which is the biggest of its kind in Africa, since 2004. Music students from across South African come to the festival at the SU Konservatorium to receive master classes and lectures from some of the world’s foremost musicians.
Each year, the SICMF invites around 30 world-class musicians to perform in the festival’s ten evening concerts of chamber and orchestral music, while also presenting coaching sessions to the music students. Approximately 300 music students will attend this year’s festival.
Among the confirmed guest artists making their debut at the festival are Knut Erik Sundquist, a Norwegian professional soccer player who gave up sport to study music, and Nicolas Dautricourt, a violinist from France who will be the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto no.3.
James Austin Smith
Returning to the festival are, among others, Daniel Rowland (violin), James Austin Smith (oboe), and Ferdinand Steiner (clarinet), who will perform Mozart’s popular Clarinet Concerto. Steiner hails from Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, and plays on a special clarinet, similar to the one Mozart actually wrote for.
The SICMF also contributes to the creation of new South African chamber music works by inviting a local composer to create a new piece. This year, Matthijs van Dijk composed a new work for narrator, percussion, overtone singer, string quartet and piano.
The narrator in Van Dijk’s work will be anti-apartheid activist Denis Goldberg, who was one of the accused in the infamous Rivonia Trail, alongside the late former president Nelson Mandela. Goldberg (83), who was involved in the armed struggle against apartheid as a member of the SACP, ANC and the underground armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, received four life-time imprisonments at the Rivionia Trail in 1964. He spent 22 years in prison.
As always, the concert programmes include an array of chamber music pieces that have never been performed in South Africa – music by both well-known and somewhat obscure composers.
“The SICMF contributes to South Africa’s rich music scene by giving local students the opportunity to work with world-class musicians who have performed in concert halls across the globe. Our unique concert programme ensures that the audience can look forward to an interesting musical experience,” says festival director and cellist Peter Martens.
Over the past 12 years, the festival has not only grown in the number of students and world-class musicians involved but also in its stature. It does, however, rely on sponsorship.
“The SICMF has long since enjoyed the support of the Rupert Music Foundation, whose association is largely based on shared values of excellence in classical music performance. Whereas the large SA corporations have yet to be hooked (especially with regard to long-term commitments), the SICMF has relied for over 10 years on grants, notably in recent years from the Art Mentor and Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundations in Switzerland. However, foundations of this nature do not give grants for a period of more than two years – 2016 being the final year of contributions from both of the aforementioned foundations,” says Martens.
The SICMF owes a great deal of gratitude to a number of individuals of substance, who not only give in their personal capacity time and time again, but who have also facilitated bringing on board support from the likes of RMB, the Chiappini Trust and Media24.
- Tickets are available from Computicket, or call ( to purchase a festival pass. Visit sicmf.co.za for more information.