EXCITING LINE-UP
A line-up of internationally acclaimed musicians will perform at the 2016 Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF), to be held from 1 to 10 July. A total of 30 South African and overseas musicians will form part of the SICMF faculty.
Over the ten days of the festival these musicians can be heard in daily evening chamber music concerts in Stellenbosch, and they will also present master classes, coaching sessions and lectures.
The approximately 300 South African music students attending this year’s festival will have the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting instrumentalists of the international concert stage. Although the SICMF – the biggest festival of its kind in Africa – has a strong educational focus, it also boasts a unique concert series with musical works which have never been performed in South Africa.
Among the star performers are festival stalwarts who have returned due to demand from both audiences and students alike, while three artists will make their festival debut.
The returning artists include Dutch-British violinist Daniel Rowland, as well as the Americans James Austin Smith (oboe), Weston Sprott (trombone) and Billy Ray Hunter (trumpet). They have all cited the festival’s unique concert programmes and its educational goals as a reason for returning year after year.
For a few musicians it is their second festival, and they have said their experience in 2015 has been nothing more than extraordinary. Among them are Canadian-born violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez, German violist Tobias Breider, Russian cellist Alexander Bouzlov and violinist Andrej Bielow from the Ukraine.
Ferdinand Steiner
Austrian clarinettist Ferdinand Steiner also returns to the SICMF as the soloist in a performance of Mozart’s popular Clarinet Concerto.
Conductors Daniel Boico and KazemAbdullah, lauded for their work last year with the SICMF’s Festival and Symphony Orchestras respectively, also return.
Audiences can also look forward to hear some of their favourite South African musicians, including violinists Suzanne Martens and Farida Bacharova,
Anzel Gerber
cellists Anzél Gerber and Peter Martens, as well as pianists Pieter Grobler and Luis Magalhães.
Three award-winning musicians make their festival debut this year: French violinist Nicolas Dautricourt, Belgian cellist David Cohen, and Norwegian double bassist Knut Erik Sundquist.
Dautricourt, who has been praised for his “sensitive and passionate” playing, was a finalist and prize-winner of
Nicolas Dautricourt
numerous international violin competitions. He is a member of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center in New York, and has performed in major concerts halls, among others Washington’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow.
At the SICMF, Dautricourt will be the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s Violin Concerto no.3.
Cohen has established a reputation as one of the most charismatic and exciting young cellists of today. A graduate of the Yehudi Menuhin School, Cohen has worked as a soloist with distinguished conductors such as Lord Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Charles Mackerras and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Sundquist, who studied in Vienna, is considered one of the leading double bass players in Europe. He was a former professional soccer player, but decided to pursue a career in music.
- Tickets are available from Computicket, or call ( to purchase a festival pass. Visit sicmf.co.za for more information.