English amateur choral society, inChoir, currently on a visit to the Western Cape, will sing with local Franschhoek choir, the Soetstemme, from Solms-Delta wine estate, at the V&A Waterfront on Friday 21 February.
inChoir, offers its members international choral holidays and a group of 49 – 43 of them singers, are visiting Cape Town this month.
Coffeebeans Routes, a specialist creative and cultural tour operator, was contracted to create a choir exploration of Cape Town and has put together a programme that combines sightseeing with musical interventions, mostly focused on choirs. The tour around the Peninsula, includes a visit to the Kalk Bay Theatre for lunch and a concert by acclaimed guitarist Derek Gripper (who is about to perform in London with John Williams). As part of a township visit, they will meet the Zamanani Brothers, a 12 piece male choir performing isicathamiya and amagwijo and will enjoy a concert by Warrongx, fronted by Ongama Mona, playing original jazz blues and reggae out of Khayelitsha. The group will also meet jazz musicians Hilton Schilder and Blackie Tempi, as well as the Little Giants.
The core of the visit is exchange and collaboration with two Cape Town choirs: the Rosa Choir, a multi-cultural choir with members drawn from across Cape Town, performing a wide range of mainly traditional Cape and South African tunes, with a few classic SA pop numbers, and the Delta Soetstemme, an all female choir based at the Solms Delta wine estate, as part of the excellent music project – Music van de Caab, headed by Adriaan Brand.
Prior to the tour, the groups exchanged songs and have been rehearsing each other’s material. The week culminates in a one hour free-to-the-public performance at the V&A Ampitheatre, where each group presents 15 minutes of their own songs, before combining on stage to perform collaborative pieces. The show runs from 16h15 to 17h15-17h30
An after-party at the Green Point Park will bring an end to a wonderful evening of song, and a memorable visit for inChoir, who will then head home to England.
