Theophil Wendt
Theophil Wendt (1874-1951) was a conductor.
Contents
Biography
Born in London on 22 August 1874, he studied mat the Royal Academy of Music. His first engagement as conductor came in 1894, working for a circus band in Cairo as part of a holiday job while studying at the RAM. Shortly thereafter in 1896 he was recommended by the Principal of the RAM for a post in piano and harmony at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown. He was later also appointed as choirmaster and organist at the St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown. He served as an infantry trooper during the Anglo-Boer War and settled in East London in 1902. Here he conducted a performance of The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.
He travelled and worked in Argentina and London, joining George Edwardes’ Light Opera Company with which he toured for almost two years. The company toured South Africa between 1911 and 1913. Whilst on tour with the Light Opera Company, a deputation of Cape Town musicians met with Wendt and encouraged him to apply for the post of conductor for the newly formed Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, and on 1 January 1914 he was appointed as conductor of the first professional symphony orchestra in South Africa. He continued in this role until 1924.
Wendt became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1922, and was an examiner of theoretical subjects for UNISA between 1922 and 1924. In July 1924 Wendt accepted an offer to develop the music section of the first broadcasting station in South Africa (SABC) as musical director. He conducted symphony and chamber con certs, opera and oratorio, and played for all the educational music programmes. In 1926, after two and a half years, the SABC restructured under the African Theatres Trust and retained a skeleton staff. With no pension and having divorced his wife, Maude, Wendt saw no future in South Africa and decided to leave for America. Between 1926 and 1937 he found ample opportunities to conduct in America. He returned to South Africa in 1938, and was invited to guest-conduct the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra on various occasions.
On the eve of his seventieth birthday the SABC broadcast special commemoration programmes in Johannesburg and Cape Town for his service to music in South Africa. On 22 August 1944, his actual birthday, Wendt conducted a live broadcast concert with the SABC Orchestra which included orchestral arrangements of his Six Old English Songs for women’s chorus.
Throughout his career he encouraged the development of young South African talents and he submitted a ten-year plan for the growth of music in the then Transvaal schools in 1939. Among Wendt’s achievements is his Chairmanship of the Society of South African Composers. He was also co-founder of the African Music Society in Johannesburg.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
As a teacher at the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown and choirmaster and organist at the St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown in the 1890s, he trained a number of South African musicians.
He conducted a production of The Mikado in East London in 1902.
Wendt was the first conductor of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra.
Awards
On 10 December 1948 UCT bestowed an honorary Doctorate on him.
Sources
Sjoerd Alkema. 2012. "Conductors of the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, 1914-1965: a historical perspective". University of Cape Town. Unpublished PhD thesis.
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