The 14th Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival will run from 30 June to 9 July at the Stellenbosch Konservatorium. The Konservatorium is the home of the Department of Music at Stellenbosch University and the SICMF is surely one of its most illustrious projects – a project of hope, world-class education and performance, and diversity.

From the point of view of the concert going public, the evening faculty concerts are a highlight, not only of the SICMF itself, but also of the entire South African classical music calendar. Local concert goers will be hard pressed to find a more inspiring and concentrated series of concerts in which new music is juxtaposed with favourites from the standard chamber music repertoire; all performed by a faculty that includes the likes of Daniel Rowland, Alissa Margulis, and Nicolas Dautricourt (violin), Alexander Buzlov, Thomas Caroll and Peter Martens (cello), James Austin Smith (oboe), a number of principals from the MET Opera Orchestra in New York City, and Nina Schumann and Luis Magalhães of TwoPianists fame to mention just a few.

Composers include Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Schönberg, Shostakovich, Piazzolla, Mozart, Liebermann, Brahms, Sibelius, Saint-Saëns and Kapustin. The featured living composer is the South African born Robert Fokkens who currently resides in the UK. Maestro Daniel Raiskin, back by popular demand, will conduct the Festival Symphony Orchestra in a programme featuring Rimsky-Korsakov’s rousing orchestral showpiece, Scheherazade. Soloists, Billy Hunter – trumpet, and Tatjana Masurenko – viola, will play Arutunian’s trumpet concerto and Walton’s viola concerto respectively. Dutch maestro, Joost Smeets, will conduct Bizet’s Carmen Suites with a Festival Concert Orchestra of over 150 participants!

For a full list of performing artists as well as detailed evening programmes, visit www.sicmf.co.za. Tickets are now on sale at Computicket and if trends of recent years past are to repeat themselves, patrons are well advised to book early as performances will sell out.