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IOL News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Ndlovu Youth Choir celebrates South African heritage with nationwide tour
South Africa's cherished musical ambassadors, the Ndlovu Youth Choir, are set to embark on their much-anticipated 2025 Heritage Tour this September. From their humble beginnings in the small village of Moutse in Limpopo, the Ndlovu Youth Choir has expanded its influence beyond South African borders, captivating audiences at iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie. In an enthusiastic message shared on social media, the choir expressed their excitement: 'Tour rehearsals are in full swing. We are so thankful to Stellantis for driving our tour and taking us around the country.' Their return to South Africa signifies a homecoming, where they will reconnect with their roots and showcase their talents to audiences who have followed their journey. Ndlovu Youth Choir has graced platforms like America's Got Talent, which have earned them international acclaim, alongside collaborations with global megastars including P!nk and Kygo. Remarkably, the choir has also partnered with leading entertainment giants like Disney and Netflix, resulting in raising over $5 million for UNICEF. But this September, they're bringing their celebrated talents back home, where the journey began. The Heritage Tour is shaped as more than just a series of concerts; it stands as a national celebration, highlighting the rich cultural tapestry of South Africa. While the Ndlovu Youth Choir has consistently sold out shows in major metropolitan centres, this tour is particularly ambitious, focusing on small towns and underserved communities. For many South Africans, attending a performance will offer the rare opportunity to witness the full-scale international production of the choir live in their own hometowns. Each performance promises an interactive and joyous experience, brimming with a blend of reimagined traditional African songs, local original compositions, and iconic global hits, all delivered in the Ndlovu Youth Choir's signature style. Audience members will be encouraged to stand, sing, and dance throughout the evening as they celebrate the spirit of the nation, its music, and above all, its people. In collaboration with Jacaranda FM, the tour promises a vibrant celebration of South African music, dance, and unity, reaching communities nationwide. Saturday Star
The Star
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Neoclassical darling Hania Rani's music is anything but 'soothing'
When Polish musician Hania Rani released her first solo album, Esja , in 2019, she knew it was a modest debut. Its subtle piano compositions were moody but pared down, and she worried that its serene atmosphere might limit its mainstream appeal. One year later, the album's placid vibe turned out to be a blessing. As the world locked down against the Covid pandemic, distressed people were turning to streaming playlists with names like 'Calm Vibes' and 'Peaceful Rhythms' that featured Rani's music. It became a breakthrough moment. As one critic told BBC radio during lockdown, Rani's music 'makes your problems and woes all sort of vanish'. But now, Rani, 34, has become a shooting star in a genre of pop-inflected minimalist music often referred to as neoclassical, or alt-classical – though she bristles at the notion that her music is meant to offer therapy. 'It's not being composed to help people relax,' she said in a recent interview. 'The music might be slow – not so loud, not upbeat – but it's actually intense.' Her critically lauded follow-up solo albums – Home (2020) and Ghosts (2023) – have made her one of the biggest names in neoclassical music. Rani has won seven Fryderyk Awards, Poland's equivalent to the Grammys, and prompted comparisons to other big-name contemporary composers, such as Nils Frahm and Max Richter. Her live shows have also drawn online attention, including a 2022 performance in Paris that has garnered nine million views on YouTube. In recent months, she has embarked on a largely sold-out tour through some of the world's best-known concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House and the Berlin Philharmonie. Rani says she's been steadily moving beyond the world of pared-down neoclassicism. — ANNA LIMINOWICZ/The New York Times In the interview in Warsaw between stops on her tour, Rani spoke eloquently and warmly in a rat-a-tat cadence about what she saw as the power of instrumental music. 'On a philosophical, or even spiritual, level, it is exploring what life is, and very basic philosophical questions,' she said. 'It allows people to meet within this music, allowing us to see each other as equals.' Especially in a period of social division, she said, wordless music allowed groups to share an experience beyond politics or belief. 'I don't know if there are going to be Trump voters, or not, in my audience,' she said. 'But they are all my listeners, and are moved by the same energy.' That vibe, she emphasised, was far from calm in live performances. During a show in March at the Berlin Philharmonie, in which she played Ghosts accompanied by an electric guitar and a string section, among other instruments, Rani nimbly moved between synthesisers, a drum machine, an upright piano and a grand piano, often banging her head to the beat. At some points, she seemed visibly out of breath. That may be because her pieces are often 'just really, really hard to play,' said Bergur Thorisson, a frequent Bjork collaborator who worked with Rani on Esja . In a video interview from Reykjavik, Iceland, he said Rani's compositions were 'at a higher level technically than most of her contemporaries.' Rani enrolled in a music school at age seven in Gdansk, Poland, a seaside city known for its jazz scene and for the birth of the Solidarity movement that ushered in democracy to the country. Her parents – a doctor and an architect – 'were not planning on making me into a famous pianist,' she said. 'My mum picked the piano for me because she played the violin and hated it.' During a stint studying music in Berlin, she gave up her ambitions to become a classical concert pianist – 'Thank God,' she said – in favour of composing. Her plans, she added, were moderated by the fact that she knew of hardly any female contemporary composers to model a career on. 'I thought that meant women cannot be composers,' she said. Since her 2019 album debut, she has been almost cartoonishly prolific. In addition to her three solo albums, she has released a live recording, two albums with the cellist Dobrawa Czocher, and collaborations with Portico Quartet and American saxophonist Colin Stetson, as well as several film and television soundtracks. Norwegian director Joachim Trier said that he had hired Rani to compose the score for his upcoming movie Sentimental Value – a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2021 film The Worst Person In The World – because of her 'sensitivity to vulnerability'. The film, which will premiere at the Cannes film festival in May, focuses on family relationships and required a 'complex approach' that eschewed sentimentality by adding 'levity' to moments that were 'quite sad or quite dark,' Trier said. 'She understands that music shouldn't clutter the expression of a movie, but open it up,' he said. Trier added that Rani was something of a perfectionist about her recordings and had travelled to the villa in Oslo where much of the film is set to experience its acoustics firsthand. 'She's the James Bond of beautiful music right now,' he said. In a sign of her expanding ambitions, Rani said that she had been consciously moving away from the kind of pared-down neoclassical music that began her career. Her next major project – a concerto partly based on music written by Josima Feldschuh, a Jewish girl who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland before dying of tuberculosis – will be her most explicitly political work. Rani has already recorded the concerto, called Non Fiction with a 45-person ensemble at Abbey Road Studios in London, and she will give a first live performance at the city's Barbican concert hall in November. She said the piece was informed by the work of Angela Davis, a Marxist academic; and Adania Shibli, a Palestinian writer, adding that it drew connections between Feldschuh and the victims of current conflicts, including in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. 'She was a prodigy kid, who probably thought the war was a temporary event,' Rani said. The concerto, she added, translated the sounds of conflict, like flying rockets and gunshots, into music. 'War is always happening in the background,' Rani said, but 'hearing it makes it much more visceral.' She added that she hoped the piece would show the capacity of instrumental music to transmit big ideas. 'Music is almost something like a political movement,' said Rani. 'You're gathering people who are different, live in such atomised worlds,' she added, inviting them to 'be part of a community, with different backgrounds. This is not only fascinating, it is important.' – ©2025 The New York Times Company
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Hania Rani's Music Is Tranquil. Please Don't Call It ‘Soothing.'
When the Polish musician Hania Rani released her first solo album, 'Esja,' in 2019, she knew it was a modest debut. Its subtle piano compositions were moody but pared down, and she worried that its serene atmosphere might limit its mainstream appeal. One year later, the album's placid vibe turned out to be a blessing. As the world locked down against the Covid pandemic, distressed people were turning to streaming playlists with names like 'Calm Vibes' and 'Peaceful Rhythms' that featured Rani's music. It became a breakthrough moment. As one critic told BBC radio during lockdown, Rani's music 'makes your problems and woes all sort of vanish.' But now, Rani, 34, has become a shooting star in a genre of pop-inflected minimalist music often referred to as neoclassical, or alt-classical — though she bristles at the notion that her music is meant to offer therapy. 'It's not being composed to help people relax,' she said in a recent interview. 'The music might be slow — not so loud, not upbeat — but it's actually intense.' Her critically lauded follow-up solo albums — 'Home' (2020) and 'Ghosts' (2023) — have made her one of the biggest names in neoclassical music. Rani has won seven Fryderyk Awards, Poland's equivalent to the Grammys, and prompted comparisons to other big-name contemporary composers, such as Nils Frahm and Max Richter. Her live shows have also drawn online attention, including a 2022 performance in Paris that has garnered nine million views on YouTube. In recent months, she has embarked on a largely sold-out tour through some of the world's best-known concert halls, including the Sydney Opera House and the Berlin Philharmonie. In the interview in Warsaw between stops on her tour, Rani spoke eloquently and warmly in a rat-a-tat cadence about what she saw as the power of instrumental music. 'On a philosophical, or even spiritual, level, it is exploring what life is, and very basic philosophical questions,' she said. 'It allows people to meet within this music, allowing us to see each other as equals.' Especially in a period of social division, she said, wordless music allowed groups to share an experience beyond politics or belief. 'I don't know if there are going to be Trump voters, or not, in my audience,' she said. 'But they are all my listeners, and are moved by the same energy.' That vibe, she emphasized, was far from calm in live performances. During a show in March at the Berlin Philharmonie, in which she played 'Ghosts' accompanied by an electric guitar and a string section, among other instruments, Rani nimbly moved between synthesizers, a drum machine, an upright piano and a grand piano, often banging her head to the beat. At some points, she seemed visibly out of breath. That may be because her pieces are often 'just really, really hard to play,' said Bergur Thorisson, a frequent Björk collaborator who worked with Rani on 'Esja.' In a video interview from Reykjavik, he said Rani's compositions were 'at a higher level technically' than most of her contemporaries.' Rani enrolled in a music school at age 7 in Gdansk, Poland, a seaside city known for its jazz scene and for the birth of the Solidarity movement that ushered in democracy to the country. Her parents — a doctor and an architect — 'were not planning on making me into a famous pianist,' she said. 'My mom picked the piano for me because she played the violin and hated it.' During a stint studying music in Berlin, she gave up her ambitions to become a classical concert pianist — 'Thank God,' she said — in favor of composing. Her plans, she added, were moderated by the fact that she knew of hardly any female contemporary composers to model a career on. 'I thought that meant women cannot be composers,' she said. Since her 2019 album debut, she has been almost cartoonishly prolific. In addition to her three solo albums, she has released a live recording, two albums with the cellist Dobrawa Czocher, and collaborations with Portico Quartet and the American saxophonist Colin Stetson, as well as several film and television soundtracks. The Norwegian director Joachim Trier said that he had hired Rani to compose the score for his upcoming movie 'Sentimental Value' — a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2021 film 'The Worst Person in the World' — because of her 'sensitivity to vulnerability.' The film, which will premiere at the Cannes film festival in May, focuses on family relationships and required a 'complex approach' that eschewed sentimentality by adding 'levity' to moments that were 'quite sad or quite dark,' Trier said. 'She understands that music shouldn't clutter the expression of a movie, but open it up,' he said. Trier added that Rani was something of a perfectionist about her recordings and had traveled to the villa in Oslo where much of the film is set to experience its acoustics firsthand. 'She's the James Bond of beautiful music right now,' he said. In a sign of her expanding ambitions, Rani said that she had been consciously moving away from the kind of pared-down neoclassical music that began her career. Her next major project — a concerto partly based on music written by Josima Feldschuh, a Jewish girl who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland before dying of tuberculosis — will be her most explicitly political work. Rani has already recorded the concerto, called 'Non Fiction' with a 45-person ensemble at Abbey Road Studios in London, and she will give a first live performance at the city's Barbican concert hall in November. She said the piece was informed by the work of Angela Davis, a Marxist academic; and Adania Shibli, a Palestinian writer, adding that it drew connections between Feldschuh and the victims of current conflicts, including in Ukraine and Gaza. 'She was a prodigy kid, who probably thought the war was a temporary event,' Rani said. The concerto, she added, translated the sounds of conflict, like flying rockets and gunshots, into music. 'War is always happening in the background,' Rani said, but 'hearing it makes it much more visceral.' She added that she hoped the piece would show the capacity of instrumental music to transmit big ideas. 'Music is almost something like a political movement,' Rani said. 'You're gathering people who are different, live in such atomized worlds,' she added, inviting them to 'be part of a community, with different backgrounds. This is not only fascinating, it is important.'
