Hendrik Hofmeyr

Hendrik Hofmeyr (1957- ). South African composer.

Biography

Born Hendrik Pienaar Hofmeyr in Cape Town. He was educated at Nassau High school where he matriculated in 1975 as one of the top 3 students in the Cape Province.

Training

After completing a BMus in musicology as well as MMus in piano (under Laura Searle) (University of Cape Town, 1976–81), he continued his studies in Italy. He completed the corso superiore in piano at the Florence Conservatory where he was a student of Alessandro Specchi and in composition under Ivan Vandor at the Bologna conservatory, where he twice won the composition prize.

He was awarded a Doctorate in Music from University of Cape Town in 1999.

Career

He lived in Italy from 1981–92, and returned to South Africa in 1992, to teach at the University of Stellenbosch and from 1998 at the University of Cape Town, becoming Professor and Head of Composition and Theory until his retirement at the end of 2022.

Contribution to South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance

Besides his numerous longer works, chamber pieces, musical renderings of poems and other writings, Hofmeyr has written music for a Wim Wenders film, and by 2012 had composed music for ballets and operas - three of the operas based on South African texts. His works include:

Il principe Barbablù ("Bluebeard", 1986), a chamber opera in 1 act, with libretto by the composer. Premiered at the Stia Music Festival, Italy.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1987), a chamber opera with a libretto by the composer, after Edgar Allan Poe.
Vala - A Metaphysical Ballet (scenario by the composer, after William Blake, 1989)
The Land of Heart’s Desire (1989/1990, revised 2010), a one-act chamber opera, with a libretto by the composer, after William Butler Yeats.
Alice (3 act ballet, scenario by the composer, after Lewis Carroll, 1990-91)
Lumukanda (1995), an opera in 3 acts, with libretto by the composer based on text by Credo Mutwa
Die Laaste Aand (2001), a chamber opera in 1 act, with a libretto by the composer based on the text by (C. Louis Leipoldt)
Saartjie (2010), a 20 minute opera with a libretto by Hofmeyr himself. The opera was expanded into a full-length opera in 2022 as Sara Baartman with a libretto by Fiona Zerbst.

Awards

In 1987, he won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher. He also received the annual Nederburg Prize for Opera for this work, subsequent to its production at the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1988. In the same year, he obtained first prize in the TrentoCinema - La colonna sonora International Competition in Trent, Italy, with a work for chamber orchestra, composed for a short film by Wim Wenders.

In 1997 he won two major international competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium (with Raptus for violin and orchestra) and the first edition of the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens (with Byzantium for soprano and orchestra).

His Incantesimo was chosen to represent South Africa at the Congress of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Croatia in 2005, and in 2008 he was honored with a Kanna Award by the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival. He received the UCT Creative Arts Award for his Second Symphony – The Elements in 2018.

Hofmeyr was awarded the prestigious triennial Hubert Rupert Prize for Classical Music in 2025 by the South African Academy of Science and Art for his contribution to music.