NewMusicSA
| Unyazi Electronic Music Festival | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Electronic music, |
| Location(s) | Johannesburg and Durban |
NewMusicSA is the South African section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM). Its formation on 10 May 1999 heralded the return of South African representation at the ISCM after many decades.
NewMusicSA is a non-profit organisation which supports the creation and performance of New Music by South African composers of all stylistic and cultural backgrounds. The organisation holds annual new music festivals, commissions works, puts out calls for scores and runs the South African New Music Ensemble. It publishes the NewMusicSA Bulletin, an annual periodical offering articles on current New Music events, issues, composers and performers, together with scores of recent works by South African composers. It provides information services for current events in the form of its monthly newsletter, and aims to foster collaboration and a sense of community among its members and the wider New Music community.
Since 2000, the organisation has held an annual festival, the New Music Indaba, which showcases contemporary South African music performed by musicians based both within the country and abroad. A central part of the festival are the 'Growing Composers' workshops, which provide the opportunity for emerging composers to work with established musicians and composers in a supportive environment. From 2000 to 2006, the New Music Indaba was held as part of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape province. From 2007 to 2009 the festival was hosted by the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria/Tshwane, Gauteng.
NewMusicSA also runs the Unyazi Electronic Music Festival, which alternates with the New Music Indaba on an annual basis. Since 2010 the two festivals have been hosted variously in Johannesburg and Durban. The 2014 Unyazi Electronic Music Festival was held in Johannesburg, hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand School of Arts.
Other notable projects include The Bow Project, which commissioned numerous composers to write new pieces for string quartet based on the uhadi bow music of Nofinishi Dywili.
NewMusicSA has provided an important link between South African art music composers and the international contemporary art music community by means of an exchange programme with the Visby International Centre for Composers (VICC). This programme has provided residencies for numerous South African composers in Gotland, Sweden. The most recent call for applicants took place in 2014, the residencies being awarded to Samora Ntsebeza and Pierre-Henri Wicomb.
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