About the Symposium
The Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium has been presented biennially since 2006 by the Department of Music of Stellenbosch University. The primary goal is to pro-actively sustain piano teaching and performance with a specific sensitivity to the current South African context and to provide teachers, performers and students with a platform for performance, education and the sharing of knowledge. The Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium aims to achieve this goal through:
1.
The creation of a unique public master class series where a wide and diverse spectrum of South African students can gain inspiration, expertise and knowledge from local and international experts in front of a live, wide and diverse audience.
2.
The creation of an extended community development program whereby teachers that operate in the previously disadvantaged areas can actively participate in activities with peers from all walks of life.
3.
Giving professional musicians a platform to perform thereby facilitating further educational collaboration with Stellenbosch University and facilitating unimaginable inspiration by hosting world class performances.
Background
Stellenbosch University hosted the first Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium in 2006, the success of which inspired the critically acclaimed Symposium of 2008. This Symposium featured lectures, concerts and master classes from a number of internationally recognized pianists and teachers including Wolfgang Wagenhäuser from the Musikhochschule in Trossingen and Alexei Lubimov, currently a resident professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. The University then hosted a hugely successful International Choral Conducting Symposium in 2009, creating more valuable international contacts and links. The 2010 Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium featured an impressive array of well-known local and internationally acclaimed pianists including Vadim Monastirsky from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Lori Sims from the Western Michigan University and the Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo from Hanover State University. This event was also marked by the unveiling of 8 new baby-grand and a number of upright pianos valued at R1 million from YAMAHA. 2011 saw the highly successful first ever Stellenbosch International String Symposium. The Stellenbosch International Music Symposia are now a feature of the Music Dept special projects and will continue for the foreseeable future with every alternate year being that of a Piano Symposium.
The Team
Nina Schumann
Luis Magalhães
Pieter Grobler
Format
The Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium offers a programme of master classes, concerts and lectures. The guests of honour, an internationally acclaimed star pianist connected by way of a permanent teaching position to a world renowned music education institution, will begin proceedings with a solo recital on the opening evening, following a day of student registration, lectures and a student concert. Lectures, master classes, discussions and concerts fill the remaining four days culminating in the final concert on the last evening, which features 10 pianos in our ever-popular Piano Extravaganza. Lectures are given by South Africa’s leading musicologists and educators and faculty concerts feature a host of superb South African and International pianists. Dove-tailing with the Symposium is the National Hennie Joubert Piano Competition, of which the final round with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra forms part of the Symposium activities.