MIAGI Youth Orchestra auditions begin

Established as a not-for profit organisation in 2001, MIAGI sees music education as an effective social upliftment tool and a great way to create vital culture awareness. MIAGI's on-going music education programmes also make available music education to children of all backgrounds. The programmes incorporate classical, jazz and indigenous music in ways that the children can easily relate to.

The successful applicants will become part of the MIAGI Youth Orchestra (MYO) and MIAGI Youth Big Band (MYBB) and be able to take part in a host of exciting training and performing opportunities in South Africa and Europe throughout 2009.

The entire MIAGI programme is of no cost to the individual students and yet will provide them with the opportunity to learn from some of the world's greatest musical talents. This year the MIAGI Youth Orchestra and Big Band will provide a host of amazing opportunities:

HeronBridge College Orchestra Course, 25 Apr - 3 May 2009

The annual training course at the beautiful riverside campus of HeronBridge provides an opportunity for the students to work and perform with some of today's finest musicians active on the international stages. They also get to know other young aspiring musicians from other parts of the country and inspire each other.

This year, the conductor will be the leading Italian pianist/conductor Marino Formenti. The Orchestra course will culminate in a performance on the evening of May the 2nd, 2009 at the Linder Auditorium. It's at this performance that MYO and MYBB will perform together an arrangement of ‘Jazz Fantasia' by the late Gideon Nxumalo - one of South Africa's most remarkable musicians of the 50s and 60s.

Largely self-taught, composer Gideon Nxumalo was also a master of the piano and of various other instruments, and besides all this, an accomplished writer and actor as well. Among the general public still an unsung hero, Gideon Nxumalo's musical legacy and genius live on, offering a wealth of brilliant music still to discover.

The South African pianist and arranger, Denzil Weale has been commissioned by MIAGI to arrange ‘Jazz Fantasia', in a new version for Symphony Orchestra and Big Band.

Cape Town Refresher Course, 1 Aug - 4 Aug 2009

Similar to the HeronBridge Orchestra course, this week will culminate in a performance on the 4th of August at the Cape Town City Hall. The students will have the opportunity to work with Patrick Lange (28) from Germany. Patrick Lange, newly appointed music director of Orchestre de Chambre de Geneve and Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin, made his debut in South Africa in September 2008, conducting the MYO Spring Concert in Johannesburg at the Linder Auditorium.

Europe Tour, 5 Aug - 15 Aug 2009

MYO and MYBB have been honoured with an invitation to the 2009 young.euro.classic (www.young-euro-classic.de) - an annual festival that sees the best youth orchestras from all around the world performing over a three week period. This is the first time in the history of this prominent festival that a youth orchestra from the African continent has been invited. MIAGI is proud to have this opportunity to present South Africa's young talent on the European stages, in a major work by a South African genious of days gone by, Gideon Nxumalo.

The opportunity to perform at this European festival is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many of these young musicians to earn scholarships and further invitations to study and perform in Europe. Another MIAGI protégé, Gould Schultz, who performed at the Turandot International Competition held in Verona, Italy earlier this year, was invited by the director of the Opera Studio in Netherlands, Hans Nieuwenhuis to participate in an intensive course at this highly esteemed centre for young singers.

These international tours for young musicians are an integral part of MIAGI's strategy to promote music education and create cultural partnerships across the world. In keeping with this strategy of cultural exchange, later in the year, the contemporary's of the MYO and MYBB from the Federal Republic of Germany, the ‘Bundesjugendorchester' will visit South Africa for a series of shows where the two youth orchestras will join each other in performances of Nxumalo's ‘Jazz Fantasia'.

Once again in 2009, MIAGI is providing amazing opportunities for talented young South African musicians. Through its on-going work with music development and international cultural exchange, MIAGI is securing a sound musical legacy for South Africa.

More information on all the above activities can be found on www.miagi.co.za