Talks and Broadcasts
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
Since 2018, I have shared the pre-concert talks for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra's symphony concerts with Rodney Trudgeon and, more recently, with Albert Combrink. Open to ticket-holders, these talks usually take place at 18h45 in the Banqueting Hall at the Cape Town City Hall. The subsequent performance is broadcast some weeks later on Fine Music Radio. In 2019, our team won "Best Night-Time Show" at the South African Radio Awards for these live broadcasts. We were nominated for the same award in 2020.
In 2023 and 2024, I joined the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra as narrator for performances of Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and music inspired by Romeo and Juliet as part of the Maynardville Open-Air Festival.
Since 2018, I have shared the pre-concert talks for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra's symphony concerts with Rodney Trudgeon and, more recently, with Albert Combrink. Open to ticket-holders, these talks usually take place at 18h45 in the Banqueting Hall at the Cape Town City Hall. The subsequent performance is broadcast some weeks later on Fine Music Radio. In 2019, our team won "Best Night-Time Show" at the South African Radio Awards for these live broadcasts. We were nominated for the same award in 2020.
In 2023 and 2024, I joined the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra as narrator for performances of Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and music inspired by Romeo and Juliet as part of the Maynardville Open-Air Festival.
Fine Music Radio
Since 2006, I have compiled and presented programmes on local classical and jazz radio station, Fine Music Radio, as a volunteer. Amongst various once-off live broadcasts, these have included:
In 2022, I won a South African Radio Award in the Best Community Music Show category for my programme celebrating the life and music of the late Peter Klatzow.
Fine Music Radio broadcasts on 101.3 FM in Cape Town, 107.9 FM in Fish Hoek and Noordhoek, 94.7 FM in Hout Bay and Llandudno, 97.1 FM on the Atlantic Seaboard, DStv Audio Channel 838 and worldwide on www.fmr.co.za.
Since 2006, I have compiled and presented programmes on local classical and jazz radio station, Fine Music Radio, as a volunteer. Amongst various once-off live broadcasts, these have included:
- Composer of the Week on Monday evenings (Alexander Borodin, Arvo Pärt, Sir John Tavener, Leonard Bernstein, John Joubert, Claudio Monteverdi, Peter Klatzow, etc.)
- Great Interpreters on Friday evenings (André Previn, Angela Hewitt, Sir Stephen Cleobury, Jonas Kaufmann, Steven Isserlis, Stephen Layton, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, The King's Singers, etc.)
- "Play On!" to promote the music of local musicians during the Covid-19 national lockdown (2020-2022)
- "The Musical Art of Theme Parks" with Kyle Paulssen (2019, 2015, 2013)
- A thirteen-part series entitled "The Organ: A Whistle-Stop Tour" (2009) in collaboration with The Cape Organ Guild
In 2022, I won a South African Radio Award in the Best Community Music Show category for my programme celebrating the life and music of the late Peter Klatzow.
Fine Music Radio broadcasts on 101.3 FM in Cape Town, 107.9 FM in Fish Hoek and Noordhoek, 94.7 FM in Hout Bay and Llandudno, 97.1 FM on the Atlantic Seaboard, DStv Audio Channel 838 and worldwide on www.fmr.co.za.
Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival
I am the live stream presenter for the annual Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF). I was first invited to present the live broadcasts, which are all still available online, in July 2019. That year, I also wrote a daily blog that reviewed the previous night's concerts:
Day 1: "It's like Christmas in July!" / Day 2: Mendelssohn and Rimsky-Korsakov warm hearts on a winter's night / Day 3: French flair and Russian passion / Day 4: Finding a new way forward / Day 5: From the New World and the Old / Day 6: Sunshine and nostalgia for winds and strings / Day 7: Chamber music à la carte / Day 8: Back to the future: Van Dijk, Schnittke and Saint-Saëns / Day 9: Nationalist vigour and Romantic charm / Day 10: 2019 SICMF concludes with a perfect cadence
Other blog articles:
View this post on InstagramA post shared by SICMF (@stellenboschfestival) on
Other presentations
In November 2018, I participated in WWl Centenary: A Poetry and Musical Tribute at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in which I presented recordings of music by 20th-century composers who were profoundly affected by the First World War such as Aaron Copland, George Butterworth, John Adams and Sir Edward Elgar.
I have also, by kind invitation of Caroline van Niekerk, delivered presentations to the University of the 3rd Age (U3A) in the Overberg region on my choral ensemble, VOX Cape Town, and the chemist-composer Alexander Borodin.