The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra wraps up its four-week Spring World Symphony Season with a final concert on Thursday in the Playhouse Opera, commencing at 7pm.
The season climaxes with American maestro Robert Moody’s curated programme, comprising Dvorák’s symphonic poem Mein Heim (My Home) and Sir Edward Elgar’s nostalgic Cello Concerto.
It will be performed by the incomparable Canadian cellist Bryan Cheng.
The soaring strains of the Sibelius Fifth Symphony bring the curtain down on a high note. The season marked the orchestra’s 40th anniversary.
Bongani Tembe, the chief executive and artistic director, said: “How the years have flown by since our orchestra was launched, back in the Spring of 1983.
The KZN Philharmonic has achieved many high water marks during its progress down the decades.
Perhaps the most durable of these was the launch of our iconic World Symphony Series during the 1990s.”
The final concert will have a Poppy Day focus. The orchestra will all be wearing poppies to acknowledge Remembrance Day, a memorial day observed since the end of World War I in 1918, when at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns on the Western Front fell silent after four years of horrific fighting.
The orchestra said that for patrons who would preferred not to drive themselves to the concert, a free park-and-ride service was being offered with two routes available – a North Coast route and one for the Upper Highway Area.
Tickets for the KZN Philharmonic’s 2023 Spring Season can be booked through Quicket or call 031 369 9438.
To pre-book for the park-and-ride service, email [email protected].
The Mercury