The 2024 Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival will run from 5 to 14 July. The 2023 SICMF was a resounding success with a star-studded faculty of 29 internationally acclaimed artists inspiring, coaching and performing alongside 257 student participants from seven countries, the vast majority of which were South Africans, and 91 of which qualified for either full or partial scholarships to attend.

The 2024 SICMF will see some new and some well-known faces. Conductor Michael Repper, currently the Music Director of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and the Northern Neck Orchestra of Virginia, will make his first appearance at the SICMF this coming July. His album with the New York Youth Symphony, which features debut recordings of works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman, achieved widespread critical acclaim, reached #1 on the Billboard Chart, and won a Grammy® Award – the first time a youth orchestra has achieved this milestone.

Much loved returning artists, some of whom are already synonymous with the SICMF, include violinists Andrey Baranov, Daniel Rowland and Nicolas Dautricourt, cellist Maja Bogdanovic, flautist Demarre McGill, Oboist Dwight Parry, percussionist extraordinaire Jauvon Gilliam and of course our locally based piano faculty, Luis Magalhães, Pieter Grobler and SICMF Artistic Director, Nina Schumann. New faculty artists include Fedor Belugin, violist of the David Oistrakh Quartet and virtuoso double bassist, Roman Patkoló.

The online student entry portal https://www.sicmf.co.za/online-entry/ is now open and students who enroll on or before 16 February 2024 will qualify for the early-bird special of R6000 for an all-inclusive entry including full board and lodging for 10 days and R3600 for full participation excluding board and lodging. As of 17 February 2023, full price fees of R6600 and R4000 will come into effect.

For further info, please consult the website or email the Festival Director @ martensp@sun.ac.za.