Stefans Grové

Stefans Grové (born 23 July 1922, Bethlehem, Orange Free State, South Africa; – 29 May 2014, Pretoria) was a South African composer. Before his death the following assessment was made of him: "He is regarded by many as Africa's greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive compositional voices of our time".

In Bethlehem, where Grové was born, his mother worked as a music teacher and his father as a school principal. Grové's musical education began at school and his first compositional efforts date from that time. He eventually trained as a pianist and organist, with the guidance from his mother's brother, D.J. Roode. As a student he remained an avid reader of musical scores (often without the assistance of accompanying soundtracks) which not only informed his own development as a composer but may also have developed his talent for sight-reading at the piano.

In 1942 Grové moved to Klerksdorp where he worked as a teacher church organist for two years. Thereafter he relocated to study composition at the University of Cape Town first with William Henry Bell and then with Erik Chisholm. Compositions from this time include a ballet suite for orchestra (1944), the String quartet in D major (1945), and a czardas for violin and piano (1946?).

As the first South African recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, Grové had the opportunity of going to Harvard University where he completed his master's degree. His teachers there included Thurston Dart and Walter Piston. Works that Grové composed under their guidance won him the G. Arthur Knight Prize and the New York Bohemian Prize. These were awarded for the Pianoforte trio and the Sonata for pianoforte and cello respectively. Grové attended Aaron Copland's composition class at the Tanglewood Summer School and studied the flute at the Longy School of Music. After these studies, beginning in 1956, Grové taught at the Bard College for two years, and then at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore for a further eight. While working at the Bard College, Grové also took up a post as choirmaster for the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church, where he pursued an interest in the performance of early music—most notably the cantatas of J.S. Bach. A similar venture was undertaken with a group that Grové founded in 1962, the Pro Musica Rara.

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