Earl Gregory performed to critical acclaim in Kinky Boots

CHIEF EXECUTIVE & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, CAPE TOWN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA LOUIS HEYNEMAN

Louis Heyneman matriculated at the Paul Roos Gymnasium and graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a B. Music and B. Journalism Hons (cum laude) in 1980. In his student years, he became the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, Die Matie, and started his career as a music and art journalist at the Afrikaans daily, Die Burger. In 1983, he was awarded a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation for post-graduate studies and furthered his studies at one of the world’s foremost institutes for journalistic studies, the University of Columbia-Missouri in the USA.

In 1987 he became the deputy editor of De Kat magazine and in 1991 he was appointed the Director of the Oude Meester Foundation for the Performing Arts. Under his guidance, more than 30 recordings of prominent South African composers and performers have been published under various South African and international labels. He served as a Trustee of the UNISA Music Foundation for two decades and occasionally writes articles on music for various publications. In 2014 he and colleague Shirley de Kock Gueller published a book on the hundred years of symphonic music in Cape Town, A Century of Symphony The story of Cape Town’s Orchestra. He became the Chief Executive of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in 2000.

BRANDON PHILLIPS, CONDUCTOR, CAPE TOWN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Since 2015, resident conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, Brandon Phillips is also its principal bassoon, music director of the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and conductor of the UCT Orchestra and ensembles. The winner of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Inaugural Len van Zyl Conductor’s Competition in 2010 (now the SA Conductors’ Competition), Phillips began his music career in the New Apostolic Church.

He is a guest conductor of the Johannesburg Philharmonic and the KZN Philharmonic, and other orchestras in oratorio, opera and ballet, as well as cross-over concerts. Appearances with the Miagi YouthOrchestraFestivalwhich he conducted in 2014 in Berlin and Amsterdam received critical acclaim. He has also conducted at the StellenboschInternationalChamberMusicFestival . In 2012, Phillips received a prestigious award from the Minister of Arts and Culture Ivan Meyer for “outstandingachievementsbytheyouth”. In 2017 he received another prestigious award, “Skouerklop” , at the Suidoosterfees.Phillips is supported by RMB Starlight Classics.