South African College of Music
Encyclopedia
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
. It is located on the University's Lower Campus in Rondebosch
Rondebosch
Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with a medium-size shopping area, a small business district as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town.-History:...
, Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
.
Study opportunities
The South African College of Music offers training in a range of orchestral instrumentsOrchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, voice
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, African music and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. The College boasts several string
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
, wind
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
, jazz and percussion ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
s as well as choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
s, a symphony orchestra and a big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
. In addition the Opera School annually presents a season of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
performances. All students are required either to play in the orchestras or bands or sing in the choirs, at the discretion of the Director.
Students who complete diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
or degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
courses are ready to enter the profession of music either as teachers, singers or instrumentalists in Western Classical Music, Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
Studies or African Music and Dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
. Careers open to diplomates and graduates include orchestral playing, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
singing, programme compiling for broadcasting networks, librarianship, performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
, and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
.
The wide range of postgraduate programmes offered includes: ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
; performance studies in Western classical music, African music and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
; musicology
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
(theory and history); and composition
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
.
History
The South African College of Music was founded by a group of musicians led by Madame Apolline Niay-Darroll and opened in 1910 in Strand Street, Cape TownCape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, with six students. In 1912 Mr William Henry Bell
William Henry Bell
William Henry Bell, known largely by his initials, W H Bell , was an English composer, conductor and lecturer....
was appointed Principal and, in 1914, the SACM moved to larger premises in Stal Plein.
In 1920 Mr Bell was made Professor of Music at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
, where he held classes for degree courses. In 1923 the SACM was incorporated into the University and Professor Bell became Dean of the Faculty of Music. In 1999 the Faculty of Music was absorbed into the Faculty of Humanities.
Strubenholm, previously the private residence in Rosebank of Henry Struben, has been home to the SACM since 1925. It now houses administrative offices and lecture rooms as well as an exhibition hall for the world-renowned Kirby Collection of African, European and Asian instruments.
Two new buildings, linked to Strubenholm, were completed at the end of 1972. These contain the 160-seat Chisholm Recital Room; an opera studio, the Fiasconaro Room; nearly 100 teaching studios and practising rooms; and the W.H. Bell Music Library, which houses a range of reference and text books, periodicals, scores and records. In addition there are recording and electronic music studios and a listening laboratory.
The 638-seat Concert Hall in the adjacent Baxter Theatre complex, with its outstanding Von Beckerath
Rudolf von Beckerath
Rudolf von Beckerath was a German master organ builder. He was born in Munich, but grew up in Hamburg, where his parents moved the year he was born. He initially pursued an interest in mechanical engineering...
organ, is an important performing and teaching venue for the SACM.
Notable alumni
- Darryl AndrewsDarryl AndrewsDarryl Andrews is a South African jazz guitarist, composer, arranger and conductor. He has a BMus degree from the University of Cape Town. He worked as a musical director/conductor at the SABC for four years, and has composed a body of jazz works that were later performed by acclaimed concert...
- Cromwell EversonCromwell EversonCromwell Everson was primarily known as a composer during his lifetime. He was brought up as an Afrikaner by his mother, Maria De Wit and father, Robert Everson. He continued this tradition and all his children were brought up as Afrikaners....
- Robert FokkensRobert FokkensRobert Fokkens is a South African classical music composer. He is among a new generation of younger composers in post-apartheid South Africa. He was educated in Cape Town at Rondebosch Boys' School....
- Malcolm ForsythMalcolm ForsythMalcolm Forsyth, CM was a South African and Canadian trombonist and composer. His daughter is National Arts Centre Orchestra cellist Amanda Forsyth....
- Stefans GrovéStefans GrovéStefans Grové is a South African composer. "He is regarded by many as Africa's greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive compostional voices of our time".-Early life:...
- Hendrik HofmeyrHendrik HofmeyrHendrik Pienaar Hofmeyr is among the younger generation of South African composers. Born in Cape Town, he furthered his studies in Italy during 10 years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector. While there, he won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher...
- John JoubertJohn Joubert (composer)John Joubert is a British composer of South African descent, particularly of choral works. He has lived in Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, for over 40 years. A music academic at the universities of Hull and Birmingham for 36 years, Joubert took early retirement in 1986 to concentrate on...
- Eddie KramerEddie KramerEdwin H. Kramer is an audio engineer and producer who has worked with, among others, Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss , Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Spooky Tooth, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax, Carly Simon, Loudness, and Robin Trower.-1960s:Eddie...
- Galt MacDermotGalt MacDermotGalt MacDermot is a Canadian composer, pianist and writer of musical theatre. He won a Grammy Award for the song African Waltz in 1960. His most successful musicals have been Hair and Two Gentlemen of Verona...
- Dizu PlaatjiesDizu PlaatjiesDizu Plaatjies is the founder and former leader of the South African group, Amampondo. He is a graduate of the University of Cape Town School of Music and now lectures there in African Music. Since leaving Amampondo he has started a new ensemble called Ibuyambo...
- Priaulx RainierPriaulx RainierIvy Priaulx Rainier was a South African-British composer. Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from her childhood. She never adopted 12-tone or serial techniques, but her music shows a...
- Judith SephumaJudith SephumaJudith Sephuma is a South African jazz and Afro-pop singer. She grew up in Polokwane and moved to Cape Town in 1994 to study as a jazz vocalist. In 1997 she graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Performer's Diploma in Jazz and went on to further study...
- Peter van der MerwePeter van der MerwePeter van der Merwe was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a musicologist, author, and librarian at the Natal Society Library. He has written several books on the history of modern classical music. He studied at the College of Music at the University of Cape Town. He also works as a cataloguer...
- George WalkerGeorge Walker (professor)Professor George Walker is a British educator, and the former director-general of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He is also a productive author of articles and other works regarding international education and physical chemistry.Walker has studied chemistry at Oxford University, and...
- Martin Watt
- Marcus WyattMarcus WyattMarcus Wyatt , is a South African trumpeter, composer and producer.Marcus was introduced to music, mostly folk and blues, at a young age as his father was chairman of the local folk club. He was introduced to the trumpet at age eleven and started playing in his school band where he learnt to read...
- Beverley Chiat
- Violina Anguelov
- John Allison
Notable staff
- Thomas RajnaThomas RajnaThomas Rajna is a Hungarian-born composer and pianist, domiciled in Cape Town in South Africa since 1970. He started to play the piano and compose at an early age and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where he won the Liszt Prize in 1947. That year he left Hungary to settle in London...
- Erik ChisholmErik ChisholmProfessor Erik William Chisholm was a Scottish composer and conductor often known as "Scotland’s forgotten composer"...
- Peter Klatzow
- Stanley GlasserStanley GlasserStanley Glasser , is a South African-born composer and academic who studied with Matyas Seiber at Cambridge. His concert music is deeply influenced by his ethnomusicological investigations of native African music...
- Lamar CrowsonLamar CrowsonJohn Lamar Crowson was an American concert pianist and a chamber musician....
- Brian PriestmanBrian PriestmanBrian Priestman is a British conductor and music educator.Priestman studied at the University of Birmingham and the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium....
- Barry SmithBarry Smith (organist)Barry Smith is a South African organist, choral and orchestral conductor, author, and musicologist.-Early life and education:Born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Smith was a choirboy at St Mary's Collegiate Church. In 1956, Smith was awarded a scholarship to Rhodes...
- Ronald StevensonRonald StevensonRonald Stevenson is a British composer, pianist, and writer about music.-Biography:The son of a Scottish father and English mother, Stevenson studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music , studying composition with Richard Hall and piano with Iso Elinson, graduating with distinction...