CURIOUS CREATURES AND A HEAVENLY HARP on this Month's Princeton Symphony Orchestra Buskaid Concert

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will present the fourth concert in its online Buskaid - A Musical Miracle series showcasing South Africa's renowned Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble. Curious Creatures and a Heavenly Harp will be available on demand Friday, April 3 - Sunday, May 2. Performed works include Capriccio Stravagante by Carlo Farina, Claude Debussy's Danse sacrée et danse profane with guest harpist Jude Harpstar, and Felix Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 10. Buskaid-trained violinist Mzwandile Twala performs Fritz Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro. Completing the musical array are beloved pop songs and dynamic kwela music. Buskaid founder Rosemary Nalden conducts.

Italian composer Carlo Farina's early Baroque Era work Capriccio Stravagante mimics animal sounds through a variety of instrumental performance techniques, while Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro is written "in the style of" Baroque violinist and composer Gaetano Pugnani. Debussy's Danse sacrée et danse profane (Sacred and Profane Dances) juxtaposes the solemn and the sensuous, and Mendelssohn's String Symphony, written when he was just 14, offers a glimpse of the composer as child prodigy.

Guest harpist Jude Harpstar is an award-winning artist who mesmerizes crowds with her dynamic and exhilarating performances on harp and piano. She has traveled the world performing to diverse crowds and has won numerous accolades, amongst them the Yamaha Competition 2004 as pianist and two International Awards for "Best Acoustic Song" and "Best Pop/Adult/Contemporary EP" in The Independent Music Awards with her duo LU FLUR. She was also the soloist on Caroline Leisegang's album entitled Øyeblikk, which won South African Classical Album of the Year in 2015.

Each Buskaid soloist and all the musicians making up the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble received rigorous, multi-year training at the Buskaid Music School in Soweto before joining Buskaid's touring ensemble.

Buskaid violinist Mzwandile Twala was born in 2000, and was brought to Buskaid at the age of 3 by his foster grandmother, with whom he lived in another suburb of Soweto. He was one of the youngest children to start learning the violin at Buskaid, and his first individual teacher was Keabetswe Goodman, one of Buskaid's assistant violin teachers. At the age of 6, he started showing signs of prodigious talent, and was then taught by Rosemary Nalden, who has been his teacher ever since. In 2018, he gained his DipABRSM with Distinction and is now the leader of the Buskaid Ensemble, as well as an assistant teacher at Buskaid.

Access to each concert in the Buskaid - A Musical Miracle series is $5 per unique device link, and includes on-demand viewing of the concert over the course of a 3-day weekend. Look for a new Buskaid on-demand concert each month. To purchase, call 609-497-0020 or visit princetonsymphony.org.

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