Peter Klatzow

Peter Klatzow (1945-). Teacher, conductor, composer.

Biography

Peter Klatzow was born in Springs, Transvaal, in 1945.

Training

He began piano lessons at the age of 4 with Sister St Dennis from the St Imelda Convent in Brakpan. He later studied the piano under Lily Shapiro (1957), Julienne Brown (1958-1960) and Aida Lovell (1961), and composition under John Blacking. Klatzow acknowledges Aida Lovell as an important musical influence during his formative years.

Klatzow matriculated from St Martin’s School in Johannesburg in 1962 and enrolled two years later as a student in the Royal College of Music in the United Kingdom where he studied piano, composition, orchestration, and conducting. Klatzow’s composition teacher was Bernard Stevens, and he took orchestration lessons with Gordon Jacob.

He also studied in Italy and France (with Nadia Boulanger).

Career

He returned to South Africa in 1966, worked at the SABC as a music producer whilst being a freelance composer, and began teaching at the University of Cape Town in 1973 where he was appointed Director of the South African College of Music in 2007.

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

As composer

He composed the music for:

• the short opera, Words from a Broken String, to a libretto by Michael Williams (2010).

• Tintinyane, with text based on Corlia Fourie's Die meisie wat soos ’n bottervoël sing.

• Veronica Paeper's ballet Drie Diere ("Three Animals")

As director

1983: The Beggar's Opera (co-dircetro with Mavis Taylor for UCT Opera School and UCT Drama Department)

Sources

Denis-Constant Martin. 2013. Sounding the Cape Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa. African Minds.

Gerhardus Stephanus Scheepers. 2019. 'The Life and Work of Roelof Temmingh (1946-2012): A conductor's guide to selected works'. Unpublished Doctoral thesis (Doctor of Musical Arts). University of Washington.

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