People of Note Fine Music Radio

On People of Note this week, Rodney Trudgeon will be talking to the conductor and pianist Kamal Khan who is In Cape Town to conduct Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor for Cape Town Opera. Kamal enjoys an international career as a teacher and conductor and he has worked with most of the world’s leading opera singers at most of the world’s leading opera houses. He was also head of Opera at UCT for many year. Lucia opens at the Artscape Opera house on Friday 14 June.

Rodney Trudgeon's guest on People of Note this week is the distinguished jazz musician and saxophonist Mccoy Mrubata who is in Cape Town doing a series of concerts for the Cape Town Music Academy to celebrate a special birthday. Mccoy has a long career of writing and performing both here and internationally. He was discovered as a young artist by Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse who took him to Johannesburg and helped to launch his career.

With the election coming up, Rodney Trudgeon invited Professor Hugh Corder into the People of Note studio to discuss issues such as the 3 ballot papers and the South Africa’s first Bill of Rights which became part of the transitional constitution. They discussed issues such as the accommodation of independent candidates for the first time and the role of the courts and judiciary in our constitutional democracy.

Opening this week at Theatre on the Bay is a show called Any Dream Will Do – My Pad Met Webber. In this show, Andre Schwartz explores his relationship with all that is Andrew Lloyd Webber since he encountered his music for the first time at the age of 12. Andre is well known to theatre audiences through his many stage appearances, both in hit musicals and his solo shows. The narrative of this show weaves together well known songs as Andre tells his own life story.

Rodney Trudgeon’s guest on People of Note this week is the distinguished singer and author Margaretha Deysel Stemmet. Apart from her hugely successful singing career in places such as Vienna and Graz, Margaretha returned to South Africa to sing all over the country for the various arts councils. She also started the Songmaker’s Guild in 1994 with Albie van Schalkwyk. In 2014, Margaretha travelled some 2,700 kilometers through Germany and Austria to listen to South African opera singers who have made it internationally. The result is her book South African Envoys of Opea.

Paulina Malefane is a Cape Town born opera singer, who studied at UCT’s College of Music with Virginia Davids.
Later she became co-founder and co-Music Director of Isango Ensemble and has worked with members of the company since 2000. She was also an advocate for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.