Chad Groepies will perform at a free concert by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in Grassy Park.
- Two young orchestral musicians will be performing for Cape Town communities in the coming weeks.
- Both hope to inspire other youth to take up classical music.
- The performances will form part of free concerts held by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
Two young musicians will aim to inspire Cape Town youth as they pick up their instruments for two free orchestral concerts this week.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) will hold concerts in Kraaifontein and Grassy Park, with two local talents performing solos.
The concerts offer a platform for local artists to showcase their talents and make music and culture accessible to communities.
CPO CEO Louis Heyneman said: “Our aim, where possible, is to include young artists from the communities, and at the Kraaifontein concert, Brackenfell’s brilliant young Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO) violinist Corban Beukes will perform the Meditation from Thais,” he said.
“In Grassy Park, the outstanding young CPYO trumpeter Chad Groepies from Mitchells Plain… will perform a movement from Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.”
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The 15-year-old Beukes started playing violin at the age of three and has been attending music school since he was eight.
He recalls his first experience with the CPO was four years ago, when, at the age of 11, he auditioned for the Western Cape Youth Classical Concert.
Corbin Beukes playing for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.(CPO) pictured during their Lunch Hour Concert in the Chandelier Foyer of the Artscape Theatre Centre on Tuesday, 4 October 2022.
“It was my first time playing for them, and I was so nervous,” he said.
He has since had the opportunity to play with the CPO as “an adult player”, something he describes as “feeling like a dream”.
He said:
It has always been a dream for me to play with the CPO. I idolise them for their professionalism and how adept they are at playing in any place. The CPO is made up of excellent players.
Beukes hopes his performance will ignite a similar passion in other young people.
“There are benefits to just listening to classical music, but I hope that if young people hear it, they might also want to play. This concert can help youth to experience the classical world, and I hope it inspires them to become involved in it.”
‘It’s just a great privilege’
The 26-year-old Groepies hopes his performance in Grassy Park will have a similar impact.
He said:
I hope this concert shows young people that there’s more opportunity out there. Often, the arts are not seen as careers with futures, and people are told that passion doesn’t pay the bills. But I hope people are inspired to take up music, even if they don’t play professionally.
Groepies, who has just returned from an orchestral summer camp in Germany, has been playing with the CPYO since 2014 and said his music career was inspired by an experience he had in Grade 8 when he heard an orchestra perform for the first time.
“I had no idea there were things out there like this. I had always appreciated music, but I hadn’t seen myself doing it,” he recalls.
“It’s a dream to be part of this performance. I don’t get to perform in those settings very often. It’s just a great privilege.”
The CPO will perform at the Kraaifontein Civic Centre on Sunday, 12 November, at 15:00. On Sunday, 19 November, it will be at the Grassy Park Civic Centre at 15:00.
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