Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph

Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph (1948-). Composer, pianist and teacher.

Biography

Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph was born in Pretoria in 1948 and was educated at Pretoria High School for Girls. As a student, she displayed an extraordinary gift for playing the piano. Under the guidance of her teachers (including Goldie Zaidel, Philip Levy and Adolph Hallis in South Africa and John Lill in London) she won many prizes and awards for her piano performances.

She is married to Michael Rudolph, who holds the position of Chair of Public Oral Health in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Training

She studied at the University of Pretoria under Stefans Grové and others. Furthering her studies at the Royal College of Music in London, she received tuition in composition from John Lambert and Tristram Carey. Zaidel-Rudolph also specialised in piano performance; her teachers included Goldie Zaidel, Philip Levy and Adolph Hallis in South Africa, and John Lill in London. Zaidel-Rudolph returned to South Africa and became the first woman in the country to obtain a Doctorate in Composition, in 1979 at the University of Pretoria under Stefans Grové.

She later received an honorary Doctorate in Education (2008). She has been awarded the following Piano Performer’s Licentiates, all with distinction: LTCL (1969); LRSM (1969); FTCL (1970); UPLM (1971).

Career

In 1975, she was appointed as Lecturer at the Wits School of Music and held the position of Professor of Theory and Composition from 2001 till her official retirement in 2014, though continued supervising postgraduate students and lecturing part-time till 2020. She is presently Honorary Research Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Wits School of Arts, where she is currently Professor of Composition. She is frequently invited to lecture on indigenous African music at international music festivals.

Zaidel-Rudolph has served as adjudicator for many composition competitions and piano festivals. She served as a Director on the Boards of SAMRO (South African Music Rights Organisation) and The SAMRO Foundation for ten years from 2008.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Zaidel-Rudolph's compositional output is considerable, covering most musical genres, ranging from the large scale symphony to chamber, choral, ballet, rock opera, film and solo instrumental music. Her works are regularly performed in Africa, Europe and America.

As composer

Zaidel-Rudolph has composed several works for stage and screen, including:

A Rage in a Cage (a rock opera, 1983)

Abantubomlambo – The River People (a ballet, 1987)

An African Dream (film score, 1988, dir. by Nodi Murphy).

Voices of Africa (2007), 2-hour multi-media stage production

Ukukhala (20-minute modern ballet choreographed by Christopher Kindo)

Zaidel-Rudolph has also made a powerful contribution to Jewish music in Johannesburg as pianist, musical director, composer and arranger for the hugely successful show Celebration, which was premiered in Johannesburg in 1994. Subsequently, since 2000, the show (a 2-hour multi-media stage extravaganza for which she composed, conducted and orchestrated the music) has been performed to great acclaim in the USA, Canada, London and Australia: Celebration I (2000), Celebration II (2002) and Celebration III (2003).

She was commissioned to write a work ("Oratorio for Human Rights") for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

She has composed a number of orchestral works, chamber music, choral works, vocal works and works for piano and for harpsichord.

New National Anthem

In 1995 she arranged a composite version of South Africa’s erstwhile and new National Anthems at the request of President Nelson Mandela. She also composed a song ("He walked to Freedom") for his honorary doctorate ceremony in 1997.

Awards

Zaidel-Rudolph has been the recipient of many awards. In 1974, she was the first South African composer to be awarded the prestigious Cobbett Prize for composition at the Royal College of Music. In 1986 she won the first prize in the first-ever Total Oil (SA) Competition in South Africa. In 1988 the first complete commercial recording of the works of a South African art music composer featured her music on an EMI album.

In 2004, President Mbeki presented her with the Order of Ikhamanga medal for her “excellent contribution to music nationally and internationally”.