#NelspruitEisteddfod40: Meet the vocal category’s adjudicator
This category kicked off on Monday at Communio Church.
This year Magdalene Minnaar is back to judge contestants in this category.
Minnaar is a highly respected performer, entrepreneurial producer and innovative director. She has been hailed a “musical rebel” by the press, due to her mission to reinvent the face of classical music in South Africa, an objective that has inspired her to become involved in the conceptualisation and production of various original projects. These include Waansin (Woordfees, KKNK) and the new Afrikaans opera Poskantoor which received, among multiple other awards, recognition as Best Overall Production at the Aardklop Arts Festival in 2014.
As a performer Minnaar is firmly established across different musical genres. She is well known as an operatic soprano who has performed in numerous operas to great acclaim, and her collaborations with renowned musicians, such as Josh Groban and Bony M, are examples of her immense versatility. Minnaar sang the female lead in the international touring production of Show Boat and played the role of Christine in The Phantom of the Opera in South Africa.
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After receiving her Honours degree in Music with distinction from the College of Music at the University of Cape Town, she was accepted into the prestigious Cape Town Opera Studio where she performed nearly twenty roles in a two-year span. In 2009 she was awarded a WBHO bursary for overseas study, which lead her to the New York Opera Studio, where she furthered her studies.
Other career highlights include performing the opening of the Cape Town Stadium for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Sean Bovim’s Queen at the Ballet, SuperSkouspel and performing as a guest artist on The Voice South Africa.
As a director Minnaar has worked on several operas, musicals and cross-genre productions over the past seven years. These include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (co-director, Cape Town Opera), Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine (Impac Festival; Youngblood Arts & Culture), The Recycled Magic Flute (Johannesburg International Mozart Festival) and the recent new South African musical Calling Us Home (Joburg Theatre, Artscape Theatre). She also directed the 2019 Innibos production of La Boheme.
Minnaar is known in the industry as someone who enjoys setting new trends and challenging conventional boundaries.
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