3rd Cape Town International Summer Music Festival Concert 7

Tuesday 25 November

Thomas Rajna 80^th Birthday Concert

 

THOMAS RAJNA is well-known as composer and pianist. He started to play the piano and compose at an early age and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest where he won the Liszt Prize in 1947. That year he left Hungary to settle in London and enrolled at the Royal College of Music. He soon appeared at the Proms under such conductors as Carlo Maria Giulini and Colin Davis, also becoming a frequent broadcaster at the BBC. In 1963 he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Appointed principal conductor and artistic leader of the Magogo Chamber Orchestra Holland in 2006, ARJAN TIEN is internationally in demand as a guest-conductor, conducting well over 45 programmes a year. In 1998 he made his appearance with the KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, which resulted in ongoing invitations from that and all other South African orchestras. In 2001 he made a successful début in the summer season of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. In October 2005 he released a highly acclaimed CD with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa of the Alto Rhapsody by Brahms and other works, featuring Sibongile Khumalo as soloist.

GOLDA SCHULTZ comes from a musical family. Golda learnt to play the violin, piano and recorder in her teens and at the age of 16 became one of the youngest performers to win the FNB Vita award for her role in Evita. After leaving school, Golda enrolled at Rhodes University to study journalism, but continued with her voice training in her spare time. She has sung the role of Magda in La Rondine at the Baxter Theatre Centre. Golda is currently studying at UCT under Prof Virginia Davids.