ACCLAIMED UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA JOINS A CLUTCH OF EXCEPTIONAL SOLOISTS ON A MUSICAL JOURNEY TO REMEMBER

With just six weeks to go, audiences have been promised a ‘concert to remember’, when three renowned soloists, bass-baritone Daniel A. Washington, joins 2025 Grammy award-winner soprano, Karen Slack and South Africa’s own Goitsemang Lehobye, on a tour across the country – from the University of Pretoria, to Soweto and Jozi, before moving on to Cape Town for two final perfomances.

Renowned bass-baritone, Daniel Washington is a Tenured Professor of Music at the University of Michigan School of Music and an Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town. An expert in African American classical music, Washington is an award-winning artist, teacher and mentor, with a music career that spans major opera houses and concert stages worldwide.

Karen Slack is one of the USA’s most celebrated sopranos and a leading advocate for diversity in classical music. She is the 2025 Winner of the Grammy award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album (“Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price) and this year premieres “African Queens” – a recital of new art songs celebrating the legacy of African queens.

Soprano Goitsemang Lehobye, hails from Ga-Rankuwa and began her musical journey through the South African Black Tie Opera Ensemble Incubator Scheme. She began her formal training at UCT and continued her studies at the University of Michigan with Professor Daniel Washington. Her operatic and concert career has taken her to stages around the world. She is a Winner of the prestigious Friends of Opera Anna Chapekis Award, and has performed as a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra during their historic first tour to South Africa (2018) and participated in the reopening of Cape Town City Hall with Mahler’s Symphony

No. 2. Goitsemang embodies a rich blend of her South African roots and classical artistry.

 Under the baton of music director and conductor Kenneth Kiesler, who has been at the helm of The UMSO since 1995, the  uniquely American repertoire, has been tailored specifically with South African audiences in mind, with each piece having a connection to Africa in some way.  The programme is peppered with items from some of America’s greatest composers including Gershwin,  Bernstein, Bonds, Dawson and Davis, to pieces from South African composers Sidumo Nyamezele and John Knox Bokwe

While in the country, the UMSO will be engaging in cultural exchanges with local music groups and ensembles at UNISA, the University of Pretoria Orchestra, Morris Isaacson Center for Music Students in Soweto, Athlone School for the Blind and music students from the surrounding areas in Cape Town.

 

SA TOUR ITINERARY: 

* Wednesday May 21, 2025, 19:00

CONCERT I: Aula, University of Pretoria

 

* Friday May 23, 2025, 19:00

CONCERT II: Regina Mundi Church, Soweto

 

* Saturday May 24, 2025, 16:00

CONCERT III: Linder Auditorium, University of the Witwatersrand/JCE, Johannesburg

 

* Monday May 26, 2025, 19:00

CONCERT IV: Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre, Parow, W Cape

 

* Tuesday, May 27, 2025,  19:30         

CONCERT V: Cape Town City Hall

 

Tickets start from R100 and patrons are guaranteed great value for their money with high-quality classical concerts, featuring international star soloists and a full orchestra from one of America’s most prestigious music schools.

 

This tour is brought to South Africa by Classical Movements, the premier concert tour company for the world’s great orchestras and choirs and the power behind the ihlombe Choral Festival, the biggest international choral gathering in South Africa, as well as Tours for the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and many others. Classical Movements creates meaningful cultural experiences through music in 147 countries.

 

For more information and to book tickets visit:

http://www.classicalmovements.com/umso-sa-tour/

OR Quicket  www.quicket.co.za

 

PROGRAMME FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

 

Leonard BERNSTEIN                   On the Waterfront Suite

George GERSHWIN                      Porgy and Bess

Summertime                                     Goitsemang Lehobye

I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’                     Daniel Washington

My Man’s Gone Now                      Karen Slack

Bess, You Is My Woman Now      Daniel Washington and Karen Slack

–Intermission–

William DAWSON                         Negro Folk Symphony

Carl DAVIS                                         arr. Deep River     Daniel Washington

Margaret BONDS                           arr. You Can Tell the World         Karen Slack

Sidumo NYAMEZELE                 Bawo Thixo Somandla (a capella)

John Knox BOKWE                       arr. SA Cock  Plea for Africa

Goitsemang Lehobye, with Karen Slack and Daniel Washington