THE 2023 Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF) will run from 30 June to 9 July in the Endler Hall at the Stellenbosch University Conservatorium.
With more than 250 participants already enrolled, the 2023 SICMF promises 10 days of magical music-making for participants and faculty alike. The format of the festival is jam-packed with orchestral rehearsals, chamber music coachings, lecture-interviews, student chamber music concerts, faculty concerts and public master classes, all of which culminates on the last three days with concerts featuring the Festival Symphony and Festival Concert Orchestras.
This year, a special focus on women musicians includes the Festival Symphony Orchestra’s first female conductor, Rebecca Tong, alongside members of a star-studded faculty, including a number of new internationally acclaimed artists as well as much loved household names from previous editions of the SICMF. Tong will conduct the Festival Symphony Orchestra on Friday 7 and Sunday 9 July.
The opening concert on 30 June will begin with Bach’s Goldberg Variations in a beautiful arrangement for string trio played by Andrey Baranov (violin), Jennifer Stumm (viola) and David Cohen (cello). Other highlights include Mendelssohn’s String Quintet no 1; Weber’s Virtuoso Quintet for clarinet and strings featuring star clarinetist from the USA, YaoGuang Zhai; Schubert’s sublime Quintet For Strings In C; and Rachmaninoff’s momentous Trio Élégiaque with faculty artists, Nicolas Dautricourt (violin), Boris Andrianov (cello) and Anastasia Markina (piano).
New music includes Matthijs van Dijk’s concerto for violin (David Bester) and uhadi (Dizu Plaatjies), and Allison Loggins-Hill’s Hammers for flute and percussion trio with Demarre McGill (flute) and Jauvon Giliam (percussion).
Student chamber music concerts will take place every day at 1pm and 5pm. The evening concerts take place every at 8pm from 30 June to 8 July. The final concert on 9 July begins at 4.30pm.
Tickets or festival passes via Webtickets. For more information, click here. The full lineup of festival artists can be found here.
