Preview: Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet from the USA on tour in Cape Town August 2022

Preview: Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet from the USA on tour in Cape Town, August 2022, three concerts, presented by Classical Movements

Thrilling news is that the Grammy Award winning Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet from the USA is touring South Africa and has three concerts happening in Cape Town- this week and on the weekend: August 18 (Groote Kerk, Cape Town), August 19 (Church of the Resurrection in Bonteheuwel- no charge to attend this concert) and August 20 (Moederkerk, Stellenbosch). See box above for details. The Quintet has performed in major concert venues around the world and played with renowned US orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, LA Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony. The Quintet toured South Africa, in 2018, with the full Minnesota Orchestra. That was a ground breaking tour as it was the first time that a professional American orchestra toured Africa. It is great that the Quintet is back. There have been raves from audiences attending the 2022 concerts in other provinces. Info as supplied:

Heritage orchestra

The Minnesota Orchestra was formed in 1903. The quintet has played together for 15 years and has performed together and individually in every US state and throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and Africa.

South African tour 2022- The Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet –repertoire

For its South African tour, The Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet is presenting an eclectic, entertaining, and virtuosic program featuring songs of joy from around the world inspired by dance rhythms of many cultures. The program includes the music of Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Astor Piazzolla, and Paquito D’ Rivera as well as African American spirituals, and brand new works by award-winning composer Jack Stamp.

Classical Movements

The tour of the Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet is presented by Classical Movements which has been presenting the annual Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival across the country since 2009. Classical Movements brought the Minnesota Orchestra, to South Africa in 2018. This was first time that a professional US Orchestra toured Africa. In 2022, in addition to the Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet, Classical Movements is also facilitating the tour of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Quintet. Both tours include cultural exchanges, masterclasses, workshops and collaborations. “Our goal for these tours is – as always – to bring the best American music and musicians to countries around the world, and have meaningful collaborations and rich engagement with local cultures. It is also of course a reflection of our deep and long commitment to South Africa.”

Classical Movements takes on a multi-faceted role in this, and is acting as the impresario for both of these tours – paying all expenses from airfare, accommodation and meals over local transportation and rentals to venue fees and marketing costs – thereby underlining the dedication to the project and the value of this opportunity to local audiences and students as well as the American groups.

Beyond the concerts that they will play in different cities, another focal point of these projects will be masterclasses and workshops with local students and organizing free community concerts in addition to the bigger concert venues we will be presenting the groups at. The musicians will be working with the University of South Africa (Pretoria), North-West University (Potchefstroom), Cape Town Concert Brass, St. Stithians Boys’ College, and a brass ensemble in Soweto, with many other exciting collaborations in the works. Furthermore, we will be offering highly discounted student tickets for many of the performances to make it as accessible as possible to see these American musicians perform live.

Special thanks go to our partners: Richard Cock Enterprises, the Johannesburg Musical Society, the University of South Africa, the North-West University, and Louise Howlett.

✳ Featured Image: Minnesota Orchestra Brass Quintet – from left to right and top to bottom: Douglas C. Carlsen, R. Douglas Wright, Michael Gast, Steven Campbell, Charles Lazarus. Supplied. Sponsored content.