Wakker Opera!
Helen Vosloo (Flute) & Ilse Myburgh (Piano)
In this programme Helen Vosloo and Ilse Myburgh, explore the wealth of operatic Fantasias written for the French Salons of the 19th century. The fantasias are written on well-known operas such as Bizet’s Carmen, Rossini’s Cinderella and Verdi’s La Traviata.
Helen Vosloo is one of South Africa’s leading classical musicians. Principal Flute with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) until recently, she appears regularly as soloist with the JPO, COSA, Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, JMI, and MIAGI.
She is a member of the acclaimed Trio Hemanay with Malcolm Nay and Marian Lewin, with whom she toured Europe and the USA. Their debut album was released to critical acclaim in 2007 to celebrate ten years of playing together and was nominated for a SAMA in 2008 in the category best instrumental album. Their second album was recently released.
Helen has been the recipient of some of South Africa’s top music awards, which enabled her to make extensive study tours to Europe and the USA, where she has worked with prominent flautists amongst whom: William Bennett in London and Peter Lukas Graf in Switzerland.
In 2002 Helen was engaged as a member of Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland, where she worked under conductors Paavo Berglund, Jukka Pekka Saraste and Olli Mustonen amongst others. While resident in Finland she performed at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival and Oulunsalo Festival, also giving master classes.
Helen champions work by South African composers and continues to have work dedicated to her. Hendrik Hofmeyr dedicated his much acclaimed Flute Concerto to Helen and the cd was released by Distell in 2002 with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emanuel Siffert.
Since her return to South Africa from Finland, she has focused her teaching time on grassroots music education. Having been inspired by the art work of the Keiskamma Trust, she founded their Music Academy in Hamburg in the rural Eastern Cape in 2006. Helen’s ventures into the cross- over genre has led to the unique sound idiom of the Keiskamma Music Academy.
Ilse Myburgh merges her talents as an accompanist and piano teacher with an entrepreneurial spirit, mentored in the Prof Joseph Stanford tradition of performance excellence. Influence of master classes with Fabio Bidini, Vladimir Viardo, Dorian Leljak, Svein Bjørkøy, Albie van Schalkwyk, Jill Richards, Yves Senn and the late Peggy Haddon has shaped her stylistic playing and interpretation of classical music. Pauline Nossel and Prof Malcolm Nay were her mentors in achieving a master’s degree in chamber music. As the inspirational director and project manager of the Beka Bantwana Foundation, Ilse is expanding her role as an advancement educator, with dedicated investment in a spectrum of pupils and colleagues who seek to showcase their talents on merit, thus reaching out to young children through the enjoyment of music.
Friends of Wakkerstroom – This performance was sponsored by Helena and Robert Buckles