The Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF) has launched a new International Study Bursary Competition with a first prize of R200 000 – the largest single bursary awarded by a South African classical music competition.
This bursary will enable the winner to further his/her music studies abroad at a recognised institution.
A second prize of a bursary worth R60 000 will also be awarded, which can be used for music studies at Stellenbosch University (SU) or an overseas institution. An additional four prizes of R10 000 each can also be won for respectively the best rendition of a South African work, the best recital, the best rendition of a major chamber music work, and the best concerto performance.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO), under the baton of the Israeli conductor and SICMF faculty member Daniel Boico, will accompany the competitors in the final round. "That the CPO is enthusiastically endorsing this competition and including us into their busy schedule is a real coup for us," says Festival Director Peter Martens.
The competition will be adjudicated over three rounds and will run concurrently with the 12th annual SICMF. The festival – the biggest of its kind on the African continent – will be presented from 3 to 12 July 2015 at the SU Konservatorium.
Since its inception in 2004, the SICMF has drawn the best South African music students who come for master classes and lectures by the internationally acclaimed musicians who are invited here by the festival. The faculty of about 30 local and overseas musicians also perform in ten evening chamber music concerts in the Konservatorium's Endler Hall.
Martens says the idea for the International Study Bursary Competition came about last year when engaging with one of the SICMF's international sponsors abroad.
"It became apparent to me that we were going to need to be innovative if we wanted to maintain the momentum that the SICMF had built up over the last decade or so. The introduction of a prestigious competition offering a first prize that would enable a top South African student to study abroad meant that we would need to provide a prize that surpassed all other local competition prizes currently on offer," explains Martens.
"Although the value of our prizes is not the crux of the matter, we have inadvertently found ourselves creating (in some ways at least) the most prestigious classical music competition in the country," he adds.
"The important attributes of this competition," says Martens, "are that it will over the years make a meaningful contribution to the lives of excellent music students who need financial assistance to study abroad and for the immediate future. It will also ensure that the SICMF remains a most desirable festival for our top students to attend."
The competition jury will be made up of five internationally acclaimed SICMF faculty members. Prof Nina Schumann, Artistic Director of the SICMF, will serve as non-voting Chair of the panel.
In order to enter, candidates are required to submit a 30 to 40 minute recorded recital programme on DVD or via a secure digital link to the SICMF Director. A maximum of ten competitors will be chosen for the second round that will take place at the SU Konservatorium. For the final round, a maximum of four competitors will be selected to perform in the Endler Hall.
Schumann says: "The aim of the bursary competition is to attract the finest local music students to the festival by offering an internationally competitive financial reward that will enable further study abroad. We will therefore be looking for our country's biggest and most exciting young talent."
- For competition details and rules please visit www.sicmf.co.za. Contact Peter Martens on martensp@sun.ac.za, or Nina Schumann on nina@twopianists.com. The closing date for competition entries is 1 May 2015.
