Written 17 May 2026
As always, we had a full hall for our Good Friday concert. This concert has become a special part of many people’s Easter – and this year we performed Handel’s Messiah which makes it even more special for many. The audience appreciated the great effort put in by the choir, soloists, orchestra and conductor Edwin Mitas and responded with enthusiastic applause.
At the end of November 2024 Richard announced that he wanted to retire at the end of 2025 after 45 glorious years of building up the SCJ to the superb standard and reputation we now enjoy, and concentrate on the many other facets of his wonderful musical career. An advertisement went out that we were looking for a new Music Director. There was no shortage of applicants and a very long and very thorough selection process began. In this, one applicant stood out as being “the whole package” – an accomplished and experienced musician, composer, arranger, conductor of choirs and orchestras, music teacher and choir trainer – and now 18 months later –
we are thrilled to welcome Sue Cock as the new Music Director of the SCJ.
We are looking very much forward to working with Sue and together we will make this new phase of the life of the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg a resounding success.
Our first concert with Sue as Music Director will be spectacular:
The Symphony Choir of Johannesburg
is proudly presenting
Carl Orff’s
Carmina Burana
Soloists: Magdalene Minnaar: soprano, Van Wyk Venter: baritone/counter-tenor.
Accompanists: Eugene Joubert & Kerryn Wiesniewski: pianos
& The Cross-sticks Percussion Group
Sunday 21 October 2026 @ 3pm
Linder Auditorium, Parktown
Conducted by Sue Cock
Carl Orff composed his cantata Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis. (“Songs of Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images”) in 1935 and 1936. The cantata is based on 24 poems chosen from a Medieval manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts from the 11th and 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical. They were written principally in Medieval Latin, Middle High German and old Arpitan. Some are a mixture of Latin, German and French vernacular. They were written by students and clergy when Latin was the lingua franca throughout Italy and western Europe for travelling scholars, universities, and theologians.
The collection was found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern, Bavaria, and is now housed in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. It is considered to be the most important collection of Goliard and vagabond songs, along with the Carmina Cantabrigiensia
Carl Heinrich Maria Orff was born in Munich on 10 July 1895, the son of Paula and Heinrich Orff. His family was Bavarian and was active in the Imperial German Army; his father was an army officer with strong musical interests, and his mother was a trained pianist – Orff would later in life say, that there was more music-making in the home than army drilling! Orff began to play the piano at age 5 and later studied cello and organ. He had two vignettes published in July 1905 – at the tender age of 10 – in the children’s supplement to a Catholic magazine.
Carl Orff is widely known for the Orff Schulwerk Method which is a developmental approach to music education that combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons similar to a child’s world of play. Developed by Orff and Gunhild Keetman in the 1920s, this method emphasizes active participation, creativity, and the integration of music, speech, movement and drama. Carmina Burana is composed with this in mind; it is a work which engages all the senses and appeals to the musicians’ as well as the listeners’ creativity and fantasy.
We will stay true to Carl Orff’s vision for the cantata, so you will be treated to a performance pleasing to both the eye and the ear!
This is a concert you don’t want to miss – it is going to be spectacular –
book now using this link:
https://www.quicket.co.za/events/353864-carmina-burana/
Kind regards,
The Symphony Choir of Johannesburg