- This event has passed.
HEINEKEN SYMPHONIC ROCKS 2012
29 Sep, 2012 - 6 Oct, 2012
It has taken over six months to prepare the scores for HEINEKEN® Symphonic Rocks concerts which will be held at the GrandWest Grand Arena in Cape Town on 29 September and at the Carnival City Big Top Arena on 6 October.
John Walton from the Cape Town Pops Orchestra first started scoring the music in April this year to ensure a seamless musical marriage between the 65-piece orchestra and popular award-winning South African musicians. Sharing the stage with the orchestra will be MiCasa and Zahara, fresh from their successes at the 2012 SAMA’s, Tumi & the Volume, Freshly Ground’s Zolani and Just Jinjer’s Ard Matthews, all of whom wowed audiences at the show last year, as well as the soulful ChianoSky and pop-rock band MacStanley, back on tour after recording their third, soon-to-be-released album.
In addition, the 2012 show will also offer unique performances from the multi-award winning Van Koke Cartel and Afrikaans Rock superstars F*ofpolisiekar; electro-pop singing sensation, Toya Delazy; popular rock hit-makers, aKing and finally, of course, Ed Roland, the legendary front-man of multi-platinum US rock band Collective Soul – who is flying in specially for the shows.
Each band or artist will be backed by 22 violins, 8 violas, 6 cellos, 4 double bases and a harp, and that’s just the string section! Also on stage will be full woodwind, brass and percussion sections.
According to Walton “We are turning the orchestra inside out when compared to the traditional classical layout where the strings are in front, followed by woodwind, followed by brass and percussion, and will place the strings at the back. The reason for this is that keeping the loudest instruments up front with the quieter strings at the rear will give us the best possible sound design for the show.”
The volume of writing is staggering and first began in April this year, with the final charts due for completion shortly before the first rehearsal. The first step in the process was transcribing recordings of all the songs into music notation, as the songs weren’t available in sheet music. From there, John says “I let the music speak to me. It takes a while for my subconscious to start suggesting what orchestral textures, counterpoints etc to use for each song. But once this starts, it’s hard to turn it off. In fact my consciousness gets flooded with ideas and I then have to sift through them, and not be precious about it. Some nice ideas need to be discarded, unfortunately, as the effect for the show needs to be put first.”
John has written an overture that will segue into the first item and prepare the audience for what lies ahead. He has also written bows music for the finale, and a special instrumental treat for the start of the 2nd half of the show.
“I love doing this work and it is a privilege to be able to conduct an exceptionally fine professional orchestra playing my arrangements – there’s not much that beats this experience”
The concert is the brainchild of MacStanley’s front man, Andy Mac.
The shows start at 20h00 and tickets are available from Computicket for between R200 and R225 in Cape Town and between R225 and R250 for the Johannesburg show. For more information, visit www.symphonicrocks.co.za
Heineken Not for Sale to Persons Under the Age of 18. Enjoy Responsibly.
Date & Venue: 29 September GrandWest Grand Arena – Cape Town – 6 October Carnival City Big Top Arena – Brakpan
Time: 20h00
Cost: GrandWest – R200 to R225 – Carnival City – R225 to R250
Tickets: Computicket
