 
The first Len van Zyl Conductors' Competition has been won by Brandon Phillips. Second was Nicholas Nicolaidis and third was Hanrich Claassen. The winner was announced at the end of the Finalists' Gala Concert in the City Hall on Sunday 7 February. The top three finalists each conducted an orchestral work - (Nicholas Nicholaidis conducted Dvořák's Scherzo Capriccioso, Brandon Phillips Smetana's The Moldau and Hanrich Claassen Liszt's Les Preludes). Thereafter, each conducted one of the three movements of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2. with Megan-Geoffrey Prins as soloist.
_______________ The other finalists in the first Len van Zyl Conductors Competition were (in alphabetical order) Hanrich Claassen, Johan Grobler, Wesley Lewis, Nicholas Nicolaidis and David Nkosi.  JOHAN GROBLER was born in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, and it was while he was with the well-known Drakensberg Boys’ Choir, which he attended from 1993 till 1996, that he was first inspired to make music his career. He enrolled at the University of Stellenbosch in 2000 and in 2005 received his BMus Honours degree. Since then he has taught the subject of music at Jan van Riebeeck High School and Somerset West Primary School, where he also held the position of choirmaster. He is currently teaching at De Kuilen High School in Kuils River and studying part-time for a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Stellenbosch, under the tuition of Dr Rudolf de Beer and the Norwegian guest lecturer Kare Hanken. WESLEY LEWIS began playing violin at a young age, studying with Izobel Arzul. He also studied piano with Charmian Rowe. After completing high school, he began studies in Music Education at the University of Cape Town, where he studied violin with Lucia Scott and organ with Prof. Shirley Gie and later David Orr. He also undertook studies in orchestral conducting with Allan Stephenson and later with Alexander Fokkens. He is currently Deputy Concertmaster of the Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, with which he has been since its inception in 2004. He has taken part in conducting master classes with Maestro Yampolsky since 2006. NICHOLAS NICOLAIDIS began conducting while still a chorister at the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir School. His first conducting post was as choirmaster and conductor of the choir and band at Pridwin Preparatory School in 1996. In April 1997 he was appointed the Musical Director of Cor Meibion Cymru de Affrig. In 1998 he made his orchestral conducting debut in the Johannesburg City Hall, conducting the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg in a few items during Last Night of the Proms. In 2002 he conducted the Chanticleer Singers for the first time in a performance of Schubert’s Mass in G at Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. In 2005 he was invited to conduct the Johannesburg Camerata, a chamber orchestra. He also conducted the Johannesburg Chamber Wind Ensemble from 2006 – 2008. In 2006 he enrolled at the University of Stellenbosch to read for a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting under the direction of the Norwegian pedagogue Kare Hanken. DAVID NKOSI hails from Kwa-Thema township near Springs on the East Rand. He obtained a BA Music and Society degree from North-West University and followed this up with a BMus Honours (Performing Arts) and an MMus (Music Education) from the University of Pretoria. Other academic credits include a Post-Graduate Certificate in Performing Arts (Conducting) from Jyvaskyla University of Applied Sciences in Finland. This year he was a visiting researcher at the University of London’s Institute of Education. He also did his Advanced Project Management Certificate at North-West University. He is currently a music educator teaching Music Theory and African Music at the East Rand School of the Arts and also the conductor of the Soshanguve Youth Symphony Orchestra. David was a guest conductor at the Jyvaskyla University Orchestra in 2007 and at the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008.Background information about the competition The Len van Zyl Conductors’ Competition is run in conjunction with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra as an initiative to support and develop classical music talent in South Africa. A financial trust was created for this purpose by Mr Len van Zyl , who believes that a vital part of keeping classical music alive and well concerns the development of young talent. Mr Van Zyl to explain the reasons behind this initiative: “Good work with good results is being done in the fields of vocal and instrumental training, but very little has been done in the area of orchestral direction. No South African orchestra has its own full-time permanent conductor and there is almost a complete absence of any training in this field.” Rules - summary Click here for a one-page pamplet about the competition. Adjudicators How is competition be adjudicated? The panel for the first competition (2010) is as follows: RICHARD COCK was born in Port Elizabeth and educated at Woodridge Preparatory School and the Diocesan College, Cape Town. He pursued his musical studies at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town from which he graduated in 1971. In 1972 he won a scholarship to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), where he was awarded
several prizes and diplomas. In 1978 he became Director of Music at the Cathedral Choir School and assistant organist at Chichester Cathedral. During his years in England he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. After his return to South Africa in 1980, he breathed new life into the National Symphony Orchestra, as Music Director from 1991. However, it is as a choral trainer and conductor that Richard Cock is best known. He was organist and director of music at St Mary’s Cathedral for twelve years and was elected a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music for his services to church music in South Africa. He founded the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the internationally recognised Chanticleer Singers twenty-nine years ago. He is chairman of the Apollo Music Trust. He also serves as a board member of Business Arts South Africa, the Ingoma Trust, the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Grahamstown Festival. In 1999 he left the orchestra to pursue a freelance career and to stimulate music activities throughout South Africa. As a conductor he is much in demand countrywide. In May 2000, he received an Honorary Doctorate in music from Rhodes University. Richard Cock is married to fellow musician Susan, and they have two children.
Welsh-born OWAIN ARWEL HUGHES has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra since 2007. Mr Hughes has conducted and recorded many of the world’s leading orchestras. As Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra he has made many recordings and performed regularly throughout the UK and Europe. He is the founder and artistic director of the Cardiff Welsh Proms. Inaugurated in 1986, it has become one of the major UK music festivals, attracting orchestras and leading artists from around the world. Committed to the highest level of music education for young people, Mr Hughes accepted the position of Music Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales in 2003. He has held the titles of Associate Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. As Principal Conductor of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Denmark, he raised the orchestra's profile with major recordings of Danish music. Acclaimed for his direction of large-scale choral works, Mr Hughes had a highly successful period as Conductor of the Huddersfield Choral Society between 1980 and 1986. His contribution to music has been marked with honorary doctorates and fellowships at nine universities and conservatoires, and in 2004 he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to music and charity. Last year he was awarded a CBE in the 2009 New Year’s Honours List, again for his contribution to music and charity.
THOMAS SANDERLING started his career at the age of twenty-four as the Music Director of the Halle Opera. He appeared frequentlywith most of the East German institutions, including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus and KomischeOper, Berlin, and won the Berlin Critics' Prize. He attracted the attention of Shostakovich, who asked him to give the East German premieres of his Thirteenth and Fourteenth symphonies and to make the world premiere recording of The Michelangelo Suite, the composer's last orchestral work. As a direct result of this he became the assistant of Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. A Permanent Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin until 1983, he then moved to the West, where he appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper, in Frankfurt, at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera, La Fenice (with Ponnelle), the Royal Danish Opera and the Finnish National Opera. Parallel to a successful career in opera, he has extensively conducted symphonic concerts together with various orchestras around the world, including the North America, Dallas, Baltimore and Berlin Radio Symphony orchestras. One his many recording credits include a CD of Mahler's Sixth Symphony with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (1998 MIDEM/Cannes Classical Music Award).
Esteemed teacher, conductor and violinist VICTOR YAMPOLSKY is Professor in Music Performance at the Northwestern University School of Music, Music Director of the Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, Music Director
Emeritus of the Omaha Symphony, and an Honorary Director of the Scotia Festival of Music in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has conducted over seventy professional and student orchestras throughout the world, including the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in the Soviet Union, Mr Yampolsky studied violin with the legendary David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory and conducting with Maestro Nicolai Rabinovich at the Leningrad Conservatory. He emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1973, where a recommendation from conductor Zubin Mehta led to an audition for Leonard Bernstein, who offered Mr Yampolsky his scholarship at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, Mass. This past year Mr Yampolsky also gave lectures and master classes at Emory University, the University of Akron, the University of Victoria and the Stellenbosch Conservatory, as well as for the Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
British-born CHRIS DOWDESWELL has been established on the South African music scene for 28 years. His early career took him to Germany and the Kammeroper in Vienna. In 1981 he was appointed Resident Conductor at the Nico Theatre Centre in Cape Town. Subsequent appointments include Artistic Director Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, part-time lecturer at UCT and UFS Music Departments and since 2003, Artistic Director of the Free State Symphony Orchestra.
He conducts regularly for Cape Town Opera and recent productions include Die Fledermaus, Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and in 2006, the joint Cape Town Opera/Norrlands Operan production of Dvorak’s Rusalka at the Baxter and in Sweden. More recently he conducted Brett Bailey’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth for Cape Town Opera at the Spier Festival, Thomas Rajna’s Valley Song at the KKNK Festival, and Massenet’s Manon at Artscape.Last year included Verdi’s Rigoletto for Cape Town Opera which was televised by SABC and Verdi’s Aida with Johan Botha and Angela Brown from the New York Met. This year’s productions have included The Merry Widow at the State Theatre, Pretoria, a staged version of Mozart’s Requiem for Cape Town Opera, and a full symphony season in Bloemfontein.
Quotes Len van Zyl: "Classical music is a very important pillar in the cultural life of any civilised community. It is alive in South Africa but certainly needs all the support it can muster in order to ensure its continued success and growth.”
Who is Len van Zyl?
|
HANRICH CLAASSEN 
Len van Zyl had a successful international career in the fields of advertising and marketing. He has also had a passionate interest in music throughout his life.