Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | CPO |
| Origin | Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa |
| Genres | Classical, popular music, soundtrack, crossover |
| Years active | 1914–present |
| Website | cpo.org.za |
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is an orchestra based in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Founded by the Cape Town City Council [1] as the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, the CPO held its inaugural concert on 28 February 1914 in the Cape Town City Hall. This orchestra and its predecessors [2] soon established a reputation both nationally and internationally, with concerts and tours throughout South Africa, [3] the UK, [4] Taiwan, the Canary Islands and the United States. [5]
Apart from regular symphony concerts, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (as it is known today), regularly accompanies Cape Town Opera; Cape Town City Ballet; musicals; pop, community, family and crossover concerts, presenting 120 concerts per annum or more.
Traditional venues such as the Cape Town City Hall, Artscape Opera, community and schools halls, and such outdoor venues as Kirstenbosch, Oude Libertas Amphitheatre, [6] and Nederburg Wines, [7] all point to the orchestra's community involvement.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra's outreach and educational programs include the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra [8] (mentored by members of the professional orchestra); Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble; [8] and the grassroots training project, Masidlale [8] (meaning "let us play" in Xhosa), where disadvantaged township children are taught theory and performance skills.
To mark its centenary celebrations in 2014, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra published A Century of Symphony: The Story of Cape Town's Orchestra to record the history and heritage of symphonic music in Cape Town and beyond. International and local musicians/conductors who performed/conducted the orchestra as referred to in the book are, among others, Jascha Heifetz, [9] Noël Coward, [10] Sir Thomas Beecham, [11] Igor Stravinsky, [12] Vladimir Ashkenazy, [13] and Pretty Yende.
Significant recordings released by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra include Mahler and Wagner songs with mezzo-soprano Hanneli Rupert [14] (Bernhard Gueller, [15] conductor); the Schnittke oratorio Nagasaki , and Symphonies No. 0 and No. 9, a double CD of orchestral masterpieces (Owain Arwel Hughes, conductor); the Barber and Korngold violin concerti with Alexander Gilman as soloist (Perry So, conductor) which won a Diapason d'Or, and the four Spohr clarinet concerti with clarinetist Maria du Toit [16] (Arjan Tien , conductor). Marking his 50th birthday, the South African pianist, François du Toit [17] [ failed verification ] performed all Beethoven piano concerti in 2016 (Victor Yampolsky, conductor).
Previously music director of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra; principal conductor of the Victoria Symphony in BC, Canada, and presently director of Symphony Nova Scotia since 2003, German-born conductor Bernhard Gueller [15] was appointed principal guest conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016, [18] following Owain Arwel Hughes and Martin Panteleev. [19]
Winner of the first Len van Zyl Conductors' Competition, [20] Brandon Phillips, [8] is conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and resident conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. [21]
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain and, according to the BBC, was Britain's first international conductor.
The Columbia Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra formed by Columbia Records strictly for the purpose of making recordings. In the 1950s, it provided a vehicle for some of Columbia's better known conductors and recording artists to record using only company resources. The musicians in the orchestra were contracted as needed for individual sessions and consisted of free-lance artists and often members of either the New York Philharmonic or the Los Angeles Philharmonic, depending on whether the recording was being made in Columbia's East Coast or West Coast studios.
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Born in the Soviet Union, he has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and has been a resident of Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him five Grammy awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestras.
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor, was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London.
The 5th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 15, 1963, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians for the year 1962. Tony Bennett and Igor Stravinsky each won 3 awards.
Andrew Manze is a British conductor and violinist, noted for his interpretation of Baroque violin music.
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The orchestra gives the majority of its performances in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons. It is also the resident orchestra for the Calgary Opera, Alberta Ballet Company, and the Honens International Piano Competition.
William Steinberg was a German-American conductor.
Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens was an English conductor and composer.
The Zurich Chamber Orchestra is a Swiss chamber orchestra based in Zurich. The ZKO's principal concert venue in Zurich is the Tonhalle. The ZKO also performs in Zurich at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the ZKO-Haus in the Seefeld quarter of the city, and such churches as the Fraumünster and the Kirche St. Peter. The ZKO presents approximately 40 performances in Zurich each year, in addition to approximately 40 children's concerts and performances elsewhere in Switzerland and abroad. In the 2016–2017, season the total number of concerts was151, a record for the ZKO.
Leslie Hays Heward was an English conductor and composer. Between 1930 and 1942 he was the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra.
Owain Arwel Hughes CBE is a Welsh orchestral conductor.
Viviane Hagner is a German violinist. She was born in Munich, Germany in 1977, to a German father and Korean mother. She is sister to Nicole Hagner, the pianist.
The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is an amateur philharmonic orchestra based in Cardiff, Wales. The CPO played its first concert in 1982 and subsequently played over 250 concerts, primarily in Wales but also in England, Switzerland, and France. The CPO has a wide repertoire and appears regularly at Wales' premier concert hall, St. David's Hall.
David Porcelijn is a Dutch composer and conductor.
The Cape Town Philharmonia Choir is a South African choir based in Cape Town, South Africa. The choir currently consists of 150 amateur singers, directed by Richard Haigh.
Sabina Mossolow is a Namibian operatic soprano.
The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) was one of the most important symphonists of the early twentieth century: his seven symphonies, written between 1899 and 1924, are the core of his oeuvre and stalwarts of the standard concert repertoire. Many of classical music's conductor–orchestra partnerships have recorded the complete set, colloquially known as the "Sibelius cycle". Specifically, the standard cycle includes:
 | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
