Violins and Fire  November 1, 2015 by Gerard Scholtz The violins play as the city burns. I experienced this irony against my skin yesterday. The streets of Cape Town were taken over by angry students during the #FeesMustFall campaign. The riot police attempted to...

Commemoration of a clever mind, tragic life Music | 19 October 2015 Christina McEwan MORAL outrage makes for good music. When South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen heard the poem Die Kind by Afrikaans poet Ingrid Jonker read by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural...

Seven questions for Bongani Ndodana-Breen Financial Mail - Chris Thurman - 18 July 2013 FM: What drew you to the musical potential of the poem "Credo"? Ndodana-Breen: The Freedom Charter is a complex document, but Brent Meersman's poem distils it into a unifying...

Unisa opens doors of learning and culture with Credo Sharon Farrell “Unisa was far ahead in anticipating our commitment through the Freedom Charter that the doors of learning and culture shall be opened.” This was the declaration by His Excellency, President Jacob...

Credo: Vision that inspired a modern classic Mail & Guardian - Matthew Krouse - 19 July 2013 "The musical performance that is "Credo" is a sweeping, uplifting declaration of how South Africans would like the country to be." The road to Pretoria is lined with...

Idealistic credo based on spirit of the Charter Mail & Guardian - Brent Meersman - 19 July 2013 Brent Meersman explains how the Freedom Charter became the basis of a remarkable artistic collaboration. “You’ve put me in a watermelon type situation,” said the young...

Mandela Day tribute to Freedom Charter SouthAfrica.info - 19 July 2013 Credo, a ground-breaking multimedia oratorio based on the unifying values embodied in South Africa's Freedom Charter, premiered at the University of South Africa's (Unisa's) ZK Matthews Great Hall...

MULTIMEDIA THEATRE: ZK Matthews Hall JHB Financial Mail - Chris Thurman - 18 July 2013 I sat in the semi-lit auditorium of the ZK Matthews Hall watching Jonas Alber put the members of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra through their paces. The German conductor...

This is an appropriate moment to celebrate the contribution one of the nation’s greatest figures has made to South Africa’s cultural life, writes Gwen Ansell AS I write this column, former president Nelson Mandela lies in a critical condition in hospital. By the time...

Music and Reconciliation Financial Times - Richard Fairman - 8 April 2013 Only a couple of months after former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith was portrayed flaunting her assets at the Royal Opera House, another real-life figure of our times is about to find herself...

Bringing back the ‘Little Jazz City’ legacy Business Day - Gwen Asnell - 4 April 2013 MORE than 60 years ago, Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, was South Africa’s "Little Jazz City". Almost every black home hosted an instrument, or a player or singer of note, and...

Bongani Ndodana-Breen: Finding hope in dark times Sunday Times- Thalia Holmes - 25 January 2013 The Mozart festival's composer in residence spills the beans on hope, books, food and his new work, Mzilikazi: Emhlabeni. Bongani Ndodana-Breen has left his home in Cape...

Winnie the Opera Hits The Stage In Pretoria By Ezinne Ukoha | June 22nd, 2011 In Diaspora. Winnie Mandela, the iconic ex-wife of equally iconic Nelson Mandela, has been bestowed the highest honor of having her life story set to a melodic dramatic symphony. And this...

Winnie faces the music Beyond historical fact lies the simple story of a real life personality. Composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen was in two minds about returning to South Africa a few years ago. He had been based first in Chicago and then in Toronto and spoke of...