10th Ihlombe! Festival To Celebrate Madiba's Legacy

Established in 2009 with a special focus on collaboration and service, Classical Movements' extraordinary Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival features a true diversity of international choirs performing for effusive audiences in every venue imaginable, making for what the Cape Times calls "singing that nourishes the body and soul." Over the past decade, Ihlombe! has featured nearly 90 choirs from some 10 countries throughout the entirety of South Africa.

From July 1-20, 2018, the 10th anniversary edition of Ihlombe! will honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Peace Prize-winning icon Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

In the spirit of Madiba's prized ideals of "Hope, Freedom & Unity," select youth and collegiate choirs hailing from five major American cities-Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington, D.C.-will perform 13 collaborative concerts with more than 15 African youth, church and community ensembles, exchanging cultures through shared workshops, side-by-side rehearsals and outreach projects across the Rainbow Nation.

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. at the historic St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, the 10th annual Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival's "Mandela at 100: Voices of Hope, Freedom & Unity" celebration will feature individual performances from all participating ensembles, as well as two world premieres commissioned by Classical Movements' own Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program for the entire 2018 Ihlombe! mass choir, conducted by world-renowned Sidumo Nyamazele, Africa Specialist at the University of Johannesburg Choir.

Decorated University of KwaZulu-Natal professor Phelelani Mnomiya has composed a powerful setting of Madiba's famous It's In Your Hands Now speech-delivered on his 90th birthday during the 46664 AIDS charity concert at London's Hyde Park.

Penning his own text for the second Ihlombe! mass choir commission, award-winning University of the Western Cape professor Sibusiso Njeza's Uthando Nomculo ("Love and Music") piece urges us all, in his words, "to love more, to see beyond the color of one's skin, religion and sexuality."

Throughout his remarkable life and career in activism and politics, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013) left a legacy rich in justice and joy. The efforts of leaders including Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired his own and Mandela's memory outside of South Africa is often vividly associated with ideals more than events, particularly those of Hope, Freedom, and Unity. The two World Premieres commissioned for the festival and the ensembles selected for this year's Ihlombe! South African Choral Festival represent the festival's celebration of these ideals and Mandela's triumph over oppression and his subsequent commitment to reconciliation.

From the opening celebration to the collaborative finale concert, the Ihlombe! festival is a force unlike any other with choirs and music from all over the world!

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