As a permanent ensemble member at the Mainfrankentheater Würzburg, the lyric soprano Silke Evers impresses in a variety of leading roles in works ranging from W. A. Mozart and J. Strauss to Italian and French composers.

In addition, Silke Evers is particularly in demand in the field of contemporary music, which she has performed at major concert halls such as the Berliner Philharmonie, the Berliner Konzerthaus, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Tonhalle Zürich, as well as at the Salzburger Festspielen and the Berlin State Opera.

Her unusual lied programmes, which she performs in moderated lieder recitals and CD recordings, also enjoy great critical acclaim. In 2017, her new CD with Mignon settings "Sehnsucht nach Italien" was released.

In addition to her own singing, Silke Evers has many years of teaching experience as lecturer in Würzburg and Mainz.

Photo: Makoto Sudo

Hendrik Hofmeyr, who has been described as South Africa’s most performed Classical composer, was born in Cape Town in 1957. His first major success as a composer came in 1988 with the performance at the State Theatre of The Fall of the House of Usher, which won the South African Opera Competition and was also awarded the Nederburg Opera Prize. In the same year, Hofmeyr, who was furthering his studies in Italy during ten years of self-imposed political exile, obtained first prize in an international competition in Trent with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. In 1992 he accepted a post as lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch, and in 1997 won two further international competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium (with Raptus for violin and orchestra) and the Dimitri Mitropoulos Competition in Athens (with Byzantium for high voice and orchestra).

Hofmeyr is currently professor and Head of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Cape Town, where he obtained his Doctorate in 1999. His Incantesimo for flute was chosen to represent South Africa at the Congress of the International Society of Contemporary Music in Croatia in 2005, and in 2008 he was honoured with a Kanna Award by the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival. He received the UCT Creative Arts Award for his Second Symphony – The Elements in 2018.

Hofmeyr’s oeuvre of over 200 works comprises operas, ballets, symphonies, concertos and other orchestral works, as well as numerous choral, vocal, chamber and instrumental works, and includes more than 130 commissions. Some 70 of his works have been released on CD; in 2021 a CD of his works entitled Partita africana was selected as Discovery of the Month by the French magazine Classica.

Work list, reviews and links to recordings: hendrikhofmeyr.wixsite.com/mysite
Photo: Phillip Liebenberg

For baritone Konstantin Ingenpaß, born in Osnabrück, music has been the focus of his life since early childhood and he has been musically active across multiple genres ever since. He began his professional singing training as a junior student with Gerhild Romberger at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and studied with renowned singers such as Teru Yoshihara, Sibylla Rubens, Bo Skovhus, Thomas Quasthoff, Mitsuko Shirai and Brigitte Fassbaender.

His personal preference for lyricism as well as the artistic freedom and independence found in the interpretation of art song led to an intensive engagement with this genre during and after his studies. In October 2020, his work was rewarded when he recieved First Prize at the Hugo-Wolf-Akademie’s International Competition for the Art of the Lied. He has given performances of his extensive art song repertoire at festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Heidelberger Frühling and the Gargan Music Festival in Kanazawa, Japan, among others.

(Photo: Clara Evens)

Lynelle Kenned, graduate of the UCT Opera School under the tutelage of Prof Virginia Davids, is a Multidisciplinary Performing Artist, TV Presenter, Corporate MC, Actress and Media Personality.

Her list of awards include a 2023 Fiësta for Best Classical Music presentation, 2022 Woordtrofee, the Kunste Onbeperk YOUNG VOICE 2019, a 2018 Naledi Award, a Fiësta Award in 2017, and a Fleur du Cap Award in 2016.

Productions include Maria in "West Side Story", Maria in "The Sound of Music", Mattie Allen in "Orpheus in Africa", Musetta in "La Boheme", Julie in "Showboat", Cherubino in "Le nozze di Figaro", and Grace in the world premiére of "Calling Me Home".

Performances include Shepherd on the Rock, The Messiah, Easter Oratorio, St Matthew Passion, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, Brahms Requiem, Faure Requiem, Les nuits d'été, Handel's Gloria and the Gloria by Vivaldi.

Lynelle adjudicates the singing category for the national Huisgenoot Eisteddfod, and regularly collaborates with the Cape Philharmonic and Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.

(Photo: Günther Schubert)

Emeritus Professor James May received a BMus from the University of Cape Town in 1961. He subsequently studied composition under Alan Bush at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His research interests concern the music of the Second Viennese School, and the work of South African composers such as Arnold van Wyk, Peter Klatzow and Hendrik Hofmeyr. He was the last Dean of the former Faculty of Music at UCT, and was the Director of the College of Music for many years.

Albie van Schalkwyk established himself as performer in a number of fields over the past 40 years. One of the leading chamber musicians and vocal accompanists in South Africa, he has also performed as soloist with SA orchestras, performed solo recitals, given master classes for singers and accompanists, worked as a music producer for the SABC, and arranged music for various combinations, including Broadway musicals and operas for 2 pianos and orchestral pieces for 3 to 8 pianos. He completed his Ph.D. in Music at the University of the Free State in May 2012.

His interest in vocal music and the art song in particular has led to many fulfilling concert partnerships with singers. One of these was the formation in 1994 of The Songmakers’ Guild, a Cape Town organisation which provides a regular platform to performers in the field of the art song and from which he recently retired as Artistic Director. He was involved in the Neuberg Internationale Kulturtage summer school as coach and performer for over 20 years and during one university sabbatical year worked as coach in the Vocal Department of the Mozarteum Music University in Salzburg, Austria. In 2009 the SA Academy of Arts and Sciences awarded him the Huberte Rupert Prize for his contribution to ensemble playing and teaching over more than 30 years.

Albie retired from his post as Associate Professor in Piano and Chamber Music at the SA College of Music, University of Cape Town, at the end of 2017. Since then he has continued his activities as collaborative pianist in chamber music and the art song repertoire, piano teacher (live and online), vocal coach and arranger for multiple pianos, all under the heading of the Musicumbrella Piano Studio.