Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Bongani Ndodana-Breen Composer.

Training

Ndodana-Breen graduated from Rhodes University with a PhD in Music Composition.

Career

He was Director of the Canadian new music organization Ensemble Noir from 1999 – 2007 touring to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

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:

Winnie, The Opera based on the life of Mrs Winnie Mandela, which premiered in 2011 to great acclaim at the State Theatre in Pretoria.

Themba and Seliba, a children’s chamber opera

Umuntu–Threnody, a chamber monodrama (commissioned by the National Arts Council)

Hani, a short opera commissioned by UCT and Cape Town Opera and premiered at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town in 2010.

Awards

He was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music in 1998 and 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 Unpublished PhD thesis.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/

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