A 30-member community choir from Limpopo will make history in Germany when they perform in the world premiere of a composition by South African-born composer Dr Musa Nkuna at the International Choir and Orchestra Festival Kassel next Friday.
The Malamulele Community Choir will perform Nkuna’s composition Requiem of Hope and Forgiveness, which is penned around the words and reflections of the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on these themes.
The three-day festival is also the first to be organised by Nkuna outside of South Africa. Nkuna, who has been based in Germany since 1999, wrote the composition as part of his doctoral thesis at the Nelson Mandela University, which he said was also a tribute to late struggle icon and cleric. He graduated in 2021.
The Malumelele Community Choir was formed last August by conductor Peter Mageza, after he failed to resuscitate the Malamulele Evangelical Presbyterian Choir, which was impacted by Covid-19.
The church choir, which celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2018, was invited to perform in Germany by Nkuna at the festival in 2019. But due to Covid-19 pandemic the choir could not travel, and the subsequent lockdowns marked the end of the church choir.
“We lost two members [of the Malumelele Evangelical Presbyterian Choir] to Covid. When I approached the other members last year to resuscitate the church choir, some were either not interested in joining the new choir or believed it would not succeed given the challenges that we faced because of Covid,” he said.
Instead Mageza approached choirs from other parts of the province to form what is now called the Malamulele Community Choir comprising choristers from Malulemele, Giyani, Nkowankowa, Phalaborwa and Waterval. Only three members from the original church choir remain.
“Through the help of local businessmen, we have managed to find financial support for rehearsals,” he said, adding that because of different areas where the singers come from, they rotate rehearsals, which requires transport and catering.
The youngest member of the choir is 24 years and the eldest 70.
“We have been able to provide transport and food to hold rehearsal, thanks to the help of the local businessmen who covered all our costs.”
Speaking to Sunday World from Germany, Nkuna said he is looking forward to welcoming the choir at the airport.
“It is a special moment for me. It is an international debut of the Requiem and working with a South African choir to perform a South African composition,” said the 49-year-old Nkuna.
“The composition is for soloists, choirs and orchestras. I wrote it quoting Tutu on themes of hope and forgiveness. It is for those who have lost their lives for our freedom and to give hope to the living.
“When I had the idea for the festival … I felt there was a need to take the music of African composers to the world.
“There is a lot of choral activity is South Africa and there have been several choirs that go overseas to perform specific works by the likes of Beethoven … but we have our own composers – DC Marivate, Edmund Maswanganyi Leslie Nkuna, Samuel Hlekani – and it is time we give the world our music.
“They will be accompanied by an orchestra from the city of Kassel. It is also a special moment for me, because I will also conduct my Requiem. It is unusual to find composers who also conduct. It used to be normal many years ago. When Mozart wrote his works, he was also expected to conduct.”
Nkuna, whose long list of qualifications includes two master’s degrees and a doctorate, has worked in over 100 theatre productions in Europe. He is busy with his second doctoral degree in musicology.
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