Composer Bongani Ndodana has written a variety of music ranging from opera, oratorio, symphonies, chamber music and choral works. He is one of the leading young musicians of his generation to have emerged from South Africa. "Bongani Ndodana is probably the foremost South African musician who will direct the course music will take in the new millennium. He has established himself in the creative fields of composition, conducting, and most importantly, in musical imagination" - Paul Boekkooi; Cue July 1998.
Born in 1975 in Queenstown, South Africa, Bongani Ndodana is a passionate advocate for the music of our time. He studied music at Rhodes University and composition with Roelof Temmingh at the Conservatory in Stellenbosch.
Bongani Ndodana's music is influenced by the lyricism and rhythms of Africa, blended with an eclectic, post-modern approach to contemporary music. He draws from the sounds of his childhood, reinterpreting and altering them, sometimes beyond recognition. His musical landscapes are mostly comprised of many layered voices some of which are African folk motifs (real or invented).
The critic Charles Staff, writing in the Indianapolis Star, recognized this and not only praised Bongani Ndodana's 2nd Symphony for its "fresh orchestration" but also Ndodana's melodic style which Staff described as "hinting at African folk tunes". In the same review he also declared "South Africa might have found a voice in 22 year old Bongani Ndodana...I went away having heard epic music by a young Romantic." . The Second Symphony Umuntu Wa Bantu was commissioned by Madam Walker Theater Center in association with Africa Exchange, a program of 651 An Arts Center in New York, and was premiered by the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in July 1998.
Bongani Ndodana conducted the world premiere of his opera-oratorio Uhambo-The Pilgrimage with the Cape Town Opera orchestra at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa in July 1998. Uhambo-The Pilgrimage is based on Guy Butler's Pilgrimage to Dias Cross, and is dedicated to him. It was commissioned as a result of Bongani Ndodana being awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music in 1998, in recognition of his work as a composer.
Bongani Ndodana has collaborated with various choreographers including Lindi Raizenburg of the Cape Town City Ballet in Episodes (Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, June 1997), New York's Germaul Barnes on My Granddaddy , (Phoenix Arizona, April 1999) and with Ronald Taylor on MASS which premiered to rave reviews at the du Maurier Theatre in Toronto, October 1998. MASS was voted one of Toronto NOW magazine's Best of 98 Dance. uNandi KaZulu , Bongani Ndodana's homage to the legendary Zulu King Shaka's mother written for mezzo soprano and orchestra premiered at the Caltex National Choir Festival with the National Symphony in Johannesburg in September 1999.
Current projects include a chamber opera Umuntu: Threnody premiering in August 2000, a large choral-symphonic work Vela Zulu commissioned by the Playhouse Company in Durban South Africa. Vela Zulu incorporates settings of poems by Prof. Themba Msimang and will be premiere in September 2000 with the Kwa Zulu-Natal Philharmonic.
Bongani Ndodana has also received commissions from the South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) for Pas de Deux Sauvage a two-piano work written for Jill Richards and Michael Blake for a tour of Europe in the fall of 1999, and also for a piano suite entitled Lives in Letter Beads written for the So. African Society of Music Teachers. Pianist Jill Richards gave the first performances of parts I and II of Bongani Ndodana's Rituals For Forgotten Faces in recitals in Pittsburgh and Boston in October 1999. Flautist Wendy Hymes premieres Bongani Ndodana's Visions at Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center in April 2000 and pianist Lucius Weatherby premiers Colours in Sand at the same recital.
During the spring and early summer of 2000, Bongani Ndodana will begin a series of extended residencies as music director of the newly established Ensemble Noir, in Toronto.
Says Bongani Ndodana:
"I have been drawn more and more towards an 'African aesthetic' within my art form, which is music riddled with European conventions. In trying to make sense of a cultural paradox, a new musical language emerges. I have learnt to trust my inner ear and rhythmic instinct. This allows me to draw upon a greater reserve of musical concepts. In drawing these two streams of music together (African and European), the hybrid outcome is more easy to identify with. It is a mirror of the society I live in"
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