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:

• Themba and Seliba (1997)

children’s opera (Libretto by Gwyneth Lloyd. Premiere by Co-Opera at Monument Theatre in Grahamstown 1996 & National Arts Festival Grahamstown 1997)

• Uhambo, opera-oratorio (1998)

(Based on Guy Butler’s “Pilgrimage to Dias Cross. Premiere by Cape Town Opera conducted by the composer at Monument Theatre, National Arts Festival Grahamstown 1998)

• Lives of African Women: Umuntu, Threnody & Dances (2000)

(Soprano, 4 celli, percussion. Libretto by the composer. Premiere by Linda Bukhosini, soprano, Durban 2000. Music Director: Juan Burgess) a chamber monodrama (commissioned by the National Arts Council)

• Hani (2010)

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

(Libretto by Mfundi Vundla & Warren Wilensky. Premiere at the Pretoria State Theatre, 2011. Director Shirley-Jo Finney. Kwa Zulu Natal Philharmonic/Jonas Alber).

• Credo (2013)

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 Unpublished PhD thesis.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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