SOUL OF FIRE

Soul of Fire – Featuring Zanne Stapelberg and Kathleen Tagg
With Piet de Beer, violin; Charles Lazar, bass; Joseph Avergel, percussion
At the Fugard Studio Theatre on 13,14 December 2012

The time has arrived for a momentus celebration in the lives of singer Zanne Stapelberg and pianist Kathleen Tagg, two of South Africa’s leading musicians, as they release their first CD under their own names this December. The CD, recorded at the beautiful Hugo Lambrechts Auditorium in Cape Town by the award-winning engineer Gerhard Roux, will be launched at a string of events in Cape Town and surrounds, beginning with the two events at the beautiful Fugard Theatre.

Soul of Fire is a genre-bending production conceived by these two supremely talented women, as a vehicle for the magnificence of music from Spain and Latin America. The CD is the recorded version of the live show that toured South Africa earlier this year, garnering rave reviews.

Zanne Stapelberg, South Africa’s beloved diva has teamed up with acclaimed New York pianist and arranger Kathleen Tagg for a show that combines passion, warmth, virtuosity and soul. For this CD, Kathleen takes Zanne’s signature songs in Spanish and places them alongside the instrumental tangos of Piazzolla, creating new, explosive original arrangements that highlight the very best that each performer brings to this project. The program straddles genres as it journeys from classical repertoire to the magical energy of Spanish Zarzuela to haunting folk songs from Argentina, Spain and Brazil. They are joined by an impressive line up of musicians who each bring a unique voice to this recording – Piet de Beer on violin, Charles Lazar on bass and Joseph Avergel on percussion.

Zanne’s career highlights include singing leading roles in operas across South Africa and Europe, sharing the stage with Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Johnny Clegg and winning the Cosmopolitan Awesome Woman Award for her opera work and South Africa’s most prestigious Arts award,  the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music.

Kathleen has made her home in New York for the past 11 years and has performed often in Carnegie Hall and at New York’s Lincoln Center, Symphony Space and Broadway’s Sondheim Theater as well as in Europe, Asia and across South Africa, garnering many awards and critical acclaim.

Performances of Soul of Fire take place 13 and 14 December at 8pm at the Fugard Studio Theatre with tickets costing from R110 to R130 via 021 461 4554 or Computicket. Friends of the Fugard benefit from usual, generous discounts. The CD will be on sale on both nights.