Durban music picks: April 1 2011

Durban’s music calender this week is soothing and refined.

• Baroque 2000, Durban’s indefatigable champion of that purest form of classical music, opens its new season of concerts with a recital this weekend at one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most beautiful historical venues.

  The soloist on this occasion is internationally acclaimed Durban-born soprano Bronwen Forbay, who sings excerpts from Handel’s rousing opera Julius Caesar. Also on the programme are Handel’s Overture to Judas Maccabeus and Concerto Grosso Op 3 No 5, as well as Telemann’s La Lyra. This is one of Forbay’s final performances before heavy demand propels her towards permanent relocation in the United States.
  
  Church of the Monastery, ­Mariannhill, 3pm, Sunday April 3. Tickets R90 at the door with subscriptions for the eight-concert series available for R720. The Monastery Tea Garden has reopened and tea and scones are on sale before and after the concert. Booking is recommended. Tel: 031 312 5539. Email: [email protected].

• nThe KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra presents its first Sunday Sinfonia Concert for 2011 this weekend. Not just any old concert, on this occasion the KZNPO shows off the talent of the cadets in the orchestra, who are part of the national cadetship programme.

  This programme was initiated by the KZNPO in 1998, when the orchestra decided to play a more active role in grassroots musical development by harnessing raw young South African musical talent and giving it the opportunity to acquire essential performing skills and experience. Under resident conductor Lykele Temmingh, the orchestra performs Stravinsky’s Danses Concertantes — played by the cadets on their own — and Dvoràk’s Wind Serenade, which they perform with the orchestra.

  St Thomas Anglican Church, Musgrave Road, 11.30am, Sunday April 3. Tickets R45 at the door. Tel: 031 369 9438. Visit: www.kznpo.co.za.