New South Africa orchestra tours Beethoven 9th
OrchestrasWhile you may be cooking a Christmas turkey, goose or nut roast, South Africa’s new Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, will be on its first national tour, performing Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
In every city, the chorus will be indigenous.
The orchestra will be led by the South African violinist Pieter Schoeman, leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
What is an indigenous chorus in South Africa? A chorus of black people? Members of South Africa’s colored (i.e. mixed race) community, and Afrikaner community – with roots going back to the seventeenth century – would probably bristle, if that is what you mean. Will Alsop change the text to accommodate one ethnic group or another, as she did in Baltimore?
Afrikaners are indigenous to South Africa in the same way that people of European descent are indigenous to the Americas…which is to say, they aren’t.
South Africa is one of the world’s richest when it comes to choirs and choral singing. Marin Alsop will have a great time.