GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Carpe Musicam! Orchestra and Choir last performed in George in December 2019 at the Botanical Gardens Christmas Carol Concert.
The lockdown due to Covid-19 started on the very evening their Last Night of the Proms season would have been staged.
Their fifth birthday celebration concert season in July, during which they would have performed together with the New Hampshire Friendship Chorus from the USA, also had to be cancelled.
The orchestra and choir were forced to discontinue rehearsals during the stricter phases of lockdown.
In July, they were given the green light to continue and a 20-piece orchestra started practising again. This has since grown to the 32-piece orchestra which is performing this month.
The choir has been put on ice for the remainder of 2020 as a large portion of the choir members are in high-risk Covid-19 groups and it is felt to be too dangerous at this stage to continue with rehearsals.
"It has been a long, dry season since our last revenue-earning concert in September 2019, and we are eagerly looking forward to our first concerts in Mossel Bay on 18 October and in George on 25 October in the Garden Route Botanical Garden," says Elsabe Barkhuizen.
The programme consists of light, inspiring hits from the 1700s right up to a piece that was only published very recently.
Included in the programme will be the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine in the style of Sousa, two tangos, a samba by Mozart, three Swing era favourites including In The Mood and a selection of Sinatra hits in a lush Broadway-style arrangement.
Orchestra leader, Violinist Cherith Bain will solo in a new arrangement of Elgar’s Salut d’Amour. Later in the programme she will team up with her co-leader, Jean Kotze, for the ever-popular Vivaldiana – a Ba-Rock spoof on Vivaldi’s style of music.
"We will still celebrate our fifth year of existence together with any audience members who turn five this year or whose birthday falls on 25 October with Rossini’s Birthday Party which has moments both sublime and ridiculous."
The performance in the Mossel Bay Town Hall on 18 October is at 15:30. Tickets for this concert are R120 each for adults and under 18s enter free. The concert at the George Botanical Gardens starts at 15:00. Tickets, R50 per adult, are sold at the gate. Children under 18 enter free of charge.
The Carpe Musicam Orchestra at the Dias Museum during a previous performance.
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