Signum Quartet: Bridges

On Thursday, November 21st at 6 PM we welcome to Nazareth House Chapel, Pretoria the celebrated Signum Quartet, featuring Florian Donderer (violin), Annette Walther (violin), Xandi van Dijk (viola), and Thomas Schmitz (cello). They will be presenting a recital entitled Bridge the chasms that divide, featuring recent South African works by Neo Muyanga, Thandi Ntuli, Denise Onen, and Monthati Masebe, as well as string quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn and Robert Schumann.

“Bridge the chasms that divide”

The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.

Nelson Mandela, Presidential inauguration, 10th May 1994

Thirty years later, President Mandela’s words ring as true as when he expressed them at his inauguration as South Africa’s new president, following the country’s first free and fair elections in April 1994.

A sense of shared cultures has been central to the process of reconciliation and healing in post-apartheid South Africa, and the ideal of a “rainbow nation” has been a lasting inspiration to the global community.

The Signum Quartet celebrates this “glorious human achievement,” and the conflicts contained therein, by inviting some of South Africa’s most original and powerful voices to reflect on their own experiences and journeys before and after 1994, weaving a rich musical tapestry as diverse as the country itself.

Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign. The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement! God bless Africa!

The Signum Quartet has asked the following composers to contribute to “bridge the chasms that divide”: Abel Selaocoe, Denise Onen, Lise Morrison, Njabulo Phungula, and Monthati Masebe supported by the Ernst vor Siemens Musikstiftung.

It is a matter close to the musicians of the quartet’s hearts to hear the stories of composers who themselves suffered under the apartheid regime and to share them with their audiences around the world in a musical way. The four musicians see it as part of their artistic identity to address social issues and socio-cultural questions in concerts, here in relation to South Africa’s history, and in general. They want to use their own means to sensitise their audience to these issues. The new and/or previously rarely heard sound language is an important point of contact that helps to open up to the unfamiliar and create new (listening) experiences.

The main idealistic goals of the project are to recall the history of South Africa to people’s minds on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid and thus set an example. In addition, the quartet would like to focus on the diversity of South African music culture and contribute to the dissemination of this cultural wealth. It sees music as an ambassador and bridge builder between the present and the past, between habit and rediscovery.

The Signum Quartet thanks its sponsors and supporters of this project, the Goethe Institut.

Join us at Nazareth House Chapel in Waterkloof, Pretoria on Thursday, November 21st, at 6 PM for an evening in the company of the world’s most beautiful string quartet music.

Tickets, as always, are available at Quicket.