Noted conductor to visit the Lowveld

NELSPRUIT – Award-winning South African conductor, Matheu Kieswetter’s dream of becoming a world-famous conductor was born when, at the age of three, he conducted his local New Apostolic Church Youth Choir in Kensington, Cape Town.

He attended rehearsals since birth, in either his father or mother’s arms. His father was a self-taught and passionate choral conductor and his mother a committed and diligent chorister in the same choir.

Sappi-Lowvelder Mother’s Day Concert event details

Having completed a Master of Music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Kieswetter accepted an invitation as a fellow of the Juilliard School of Music in New York in the summer of 2013. He has participated in a number of master classes around Europe, the United Kingdom and the USA.

He won third place in the International Conducting Competition with the Kammerphilharmonic Graz in Austria, in 2011 was awarded second prize in the International Conducting Competition with the Orpheus Sinfonia of London, and in 2015 won second place in the Complete Beethoven Competition with the London Classical Soloists.

In 2011 Kieswetter was named as one of Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans and in 2012 was honoured in Prof Jonathan Jansen’s book, Great South African Teachers. Matheu has been the recipient of many scholarship awards including the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Post-graduate Award.

Kieswetter is an influential advocate for music education. He was the director of the B.Ed. Education Choir at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2011. This was a training initiative which coached future teachers how to rehearse and train their own respective school ensembles and choirs.

Kieswetter conducted a combined performance of the Johannesburg and Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestras in 2014, where he offered conducting tuition to young aspiring conductors during the workshop and rehearsal process. Later that year, he was appointed a director on the What it Takes project, an initiative forged from an energise partnership between the KZN Philharmonic and South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation (SANYOF).

Kieswetter assisted American James Ross for a week and co-presented lectures with Maestro Ross and Maestro Kenneth Slowik (Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC). As a champion of new music, Kieswetter has established his own contemporary ensemble, the Ubuntu Consort, conducted many premiers including new operas, one-act ballets, contemporary dance productions and film scores.

He has on a number of occasions conducted the Said Ensemble (a new-music ensemble based in Glasgow), has been a regular at new-music festivals in the United Kingdom including Plug Festival in Glasgow, Sound Festival in Aberdeen and has worked on film recordings with BAFTA-nominated composer, Jessica Jones. Kieswetter has also loved working with artists Kieron Jina (Lozenge) and Anthea Moys in the Conductors, with Richard Cock and Mokale Kaopeng and in Misconduct. He also worked with Moving into Dance Mophatong and the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra at the final concert of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival 2015.

From 2011 to 2013, he was the music director of Strachclyde University Chorus and conducted the orchestra at the same university in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2014 he conducted the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir on a number of occasions, the highlight of which was a celebratory concert opening of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall.

He has also conducted SANYO on a number of occasions including during its 50th anniversary year. This was a dance production in collaboration with Vuyani Dance Company and Gregory Manqoma, entitled Full Moon, which toured in 2015.

He has conducted top orchestras around the globe including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Bulgarian State Philharmonic, The Juilliard Orchestra, the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir, Kammerphilharmonic Graz in Austria, the Orpheus Sinfonia and the London Classical Soloists in London, Oiko Musica in Germany, the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra.

This year Kieswetter will conduct the Sappi/Lowvelder Mother’s Day concert at the Lowveld Botanical Garden on Sunday, May 8. He will be accompanied by the 65-member University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra and Wind Band. Don’t miss out on this annual event. It will be extra special this year with Sappi celebrating its 80th year of business and Lowvelder celebrating its 130th year in the Lowveld.