Bongani Ndodana-Breen
Bongani Ndodana-Breen (1975-) Composer.
Contents
Biography
Born in Queenstown.
Training
He was educated at St Andrews College, then at Rhodes University, where his teachers included Ishbel Sholto-Douglas. He subsequently was awarded a scholarship by the Foundation for the Creative Arts that allowed him to study composition with Roelof Temmingh at the University of Stellenbosch.
Training
Matriculated at St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown, and in 1994 won a South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) bursary to Rhodes University. A grant from the Foundation for the Creative Arts enabled Ndodana to study music under Roelof Temmingh at the Stellenbosch University Conservatoire of Music during 1995. Ndodana-Breen graduated from Rhodes University with a PhD in Music Composition.
Career
Performances of his music have taken place in Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East. He was composer in residence with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. He was Director of the Canadian new music organization Ensemble Noir from 1999 – 2007 touring to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. He returned to South Africa in 2007 after working in Toronto, Canada for a decade.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Bongani Ndodana-Breen has written a wide range of music encompassing symphonic work, opera, chamber music and vocal music, including:
- Themba and Seliba (1997)
- Uhambo (1998)
- Lives of African Women: Umuntu, Threnody & Dances (2000)
- Hani (2010)
- Winnie, the Opera (2011)
- Credo (2013)
Awards
He was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music in 1998. This led to a commission for his opera-oratorio Uhambo that he conducted at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. He was selected as one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans of 2011.
Sources
Wayne Muller. 2018. A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015). Unpublished PhD thesis.
Official website. https://www.ndodanabreen.com/bio/
Denise Louw. 'SA’s first Xhosa opera'. Mail & Guardian. 13 December 1996.
https://www.up.ac.za/sacomposers/article/2756276/ndodana-bongani
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