Rhodes University’s Music and Musicology PhD candidate and jazz singer and songwriter, Natalie Rungan, has recently been awarded for her love, dedication, and hard work in music. She won an international Akademia Music Grand Award for her lively and introspective Jazz EP, 'There's A Sound in My Head.' The album was composed as the creative foundation of her PhD. In it, she reflects on her musical journey and the life turns and revelations that made her the artist and teacher she is today.

After suffering a catastrophic stroke while performing on stage in 2019, with only two months left for him to finish his master’s degree in ethnomusicology, Joe Makhanza had to pause his academic journey.

Renowned African musician, songwriter and storyteller Latozi “Madosini” Mphahleni passed away late in 2022. The cultural and indigenous music activist, who laughed as often as she played, was loved by everyone she met. She has left behind a rich legacy of Xhosa music, heritage and history. She also taught and nurtured a new generation of bow players, reinvigorating an art that was dying.

On Sunday, 13 November 2022, citizens of Makana filled the Cathedral of St Michael and St George to experience the newly-formed Makana Community Orchestra's inaugural concert.

On Saturday 03 September 2022, Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela officially handed over a hood and gown to Dr Latozi Madosini Mpahleni, in full view of Dr Mpahleni’s family and the community at Mkhankatho village in Libode, outside Mthatha.

A staff member and two students from Rhodes University’s International Library of African Music (ILAM) will be stars of their own show during the National Arts Festival (NAF) in Makhanda this year.

On 25 May, otherwise known as Africa Day, Rhodes University’s Department of Music and Musicology hosted Professor Kofi Agawu, Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center, City University of New York and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.

On Friday, 08 October 2021, Rhodes University Chamber Choir (RUCC) collaborated with Zolani Youth Choir (ZYC) and Makhanda KWANTU Choir to hold a concert at Cathedral of St Michael and St Georges. The audience comprised various citizens from the Makhanda community, including the Dean of the Cathedral, Reverend Mzinzisi Dyantyi. The event brought pride to the town of Makhanda with supporters and lovers of choral music coming out in numbers.

Rhodes University’s Head of Music and Musicology, Associate Professor Catherine Foxcroft, recently had a sit down with the Communications and Advancement Division and reflected on the effect 2020 had on her personal, academic, and teaching and learning experiences.

On Thursday 20 May, Rhodes University and the International Library of African Music (ILAM) launch a new podcast series called African Music Activists. The series will showcase some of Africa’s most dedicated and influential music activists.

Rhodes University would like to join the millions of South Africa in paying homage to a world-renowned opera singer and jazz music legend, Dr Sibongile Khumalo.

Dr McConnachie revolutionised the teaching of Instrumental Music Studies at Rhodes University by substituting western musical instruments for indigenous African performance practice. In just three years, enrolment on this programme has tripled from 27 to 94 – a living testimony to the value of responsive, relevant and empowering teaching in higher education.

It has hardly been a month since the release of his gospel single and Rhodes University gospel artist and final year Bachelor of Arts student, Praise Ntsako Mathebula is already leading the Google Play Gospel charts with his song-Pfuxelela, which means ‘Revive’.

Are you in need of some music to warm you during these turbulent times? Then come and watch as Tamsyn Hanslo and Garreth Robertson take to the stage in the comfort of their own home.

Thanks to esteemed project donors, the Rhodes University International Library of African Music (ILAM) is able to continue with its African music research projects, during a time when the cultural sector is being negatively impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Two Rhodes University alumni, Dylan Smith and Timothy Abel, were recently awarded prestigious Rhodes Scholarships.

Students are required to submit a motivation for the scholarship/bursary for which they would like to apply. Scholarships and bursaries are awarded on the basis of merit and need.

South African composer, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, who graduated from Rhodes University with PhD in Composition earlier this year, was commissioned by the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra (one of the top 10 US orchestras) to write a work in commemoration of Nelson Mandela’s centenary.

The 12 National Grahamstown Music Competition 2018, hosted by the Department of Music and Musicology Rhodes University from 21-23 June 2018, was an inspiring three days of exciting music-making. Taking place annually the weekend before the NAF kicks off, the NGM competition inevitably leaves audience members, teachers and young performers with the happy impression that SA youngsters have musical talent beyond measure. This year’s competition was no exception, with our young performers once again displaying astonishing musical prowess on the Beethoven Room’s stage.

YOU WERE AMAZING!!!

The Rhodes University community along with various guests gathered recently at the Blue Lecture Theatre in Eden Grove to celebrate Prof Catherine Foxcroft and Dr Jennifer Williams for having received the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award for 2015.

The competition is designed to foster upcoming musical talent in South Africa in a supportive style. The Grahamstown Competition invites applications for any instrument or voice from musicians nationwide who are under the age of 25.

The Rhodes University community is saddened by the passing of one of its alumni, Dr Ramapolo Hugh Masekela, this morning after a protracted and courageous ten-year battle with prostate cancer.

Many people think of South African jazz solely in terms of performance, but it is also an important and growing field in music research. The most recent issue of the Georg August University Gottingen journal The World of Music (New Series) is a special themed issue focusing on South African jazz culture.

Music warms the Guy Butler Theatre By Uvile Ximba This Thursday, at the Monument’s Guy Butler Theatre, the Rhodes Gala Concert brought together musicians for a presentation of classical compositions. Rhodes University’s Chamber Choir, Instrumental Music Studies Vocalists and the Rhodes Band, in collaboration with musicians from Nelson Mandela University, Pretoria and King William’s Town, composed a beautiful evening of music.

We want young South African musicians to have the opportunity to audition - can you help us spread the word? Information is available on www.sanyo.org.za

At Senate on Friday 20th November, the winners of the 2015 Distinguished Teaching Awards were announced as follows:

The Department of Music was privileged to host two scholars from the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, in Germany, from 3-6 August. They are Professor Eva-Maria von Adam-Schmidmeier and Professor Tiago Pinto.

The Department of Music recently hosted several overseas visitors in the Department.

Rhodes Department of Music and Musicology student Sikilelwa Qwazi will be attending the University of Washington DC as an exchange student next semester.

Justin Bellairs, an MMus Student at Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology, played at Carnegie Hall in New York on Thursday 30 November.

Saxophonist Paul Richard performed a contemporary classical programme for his Masters Recital on Tuesday 30 September.

On Thursday 2 October 2014, Composer Clare Loveday gave a lecture at Rhodes University entitled "Colliding Projects: Creating Inter-disciplinary projects for society, through society."

On Monday, 25 August, Ricardo Colima of the Universidad de Magallanes in Chile gave an inspiring talk on the rise of community and university based orchestras in Chile since the 1970s.

The National Grahamstown Music Competition 2014 was hosted by Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology from 18 – 21 June 2014.

EAST London-born jazz muso Babs Kakaza has performed on stages across the world but then fell pregnant and moved back home to settle down.

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University department of music in collaboration with Rhodes University is hosting a performance by the internationally acclaimed Chameleon Trio tomorrow.

Music Department students Christo Greyling and Paul Richard performed in front of an enthusiastic audience last night. The audience included learners from Ntsika and Nombulelo High Schools involved in the Access Music Project and the Grahamstown Field Band Foundation at the Joza Youth Hub.

The Gardens of the Equinox project is a duo comprising of pianist Jill Richards and composer and drummer Christophe Fellay. Richards and Fellay performed at Rhodes Department of Music and Musicology on Tuesday last week.

The Department of Music and Musicology is proud to announce that one of its post-graduate students, Nicole Germiquet, was awarded the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship.

Music Student Awarded St Andrews College Rhodes Scholarship

A composition based on a letter written in prison by Irish writer Oscar Wilde will be among the less commonly heard works in Thursday 2 October's concert by Grahamstown pianist Mareli Stolp.

Classics at The Castle presented an evening with something different and superb at the Springtime Sax Soiree on Friday, 4 October.

Biography pays tribute to the innovative South African pianist and arranger Chris McGregor.

Had he lived — he died in 1990 — jazzman Chris McGregor would be in his 80s now. But, like jazz veterans across the globe, he would probably still be surprising audiences with harmonic innovation. Health permitting, jazz isn’t a calling in which years mean much.

The Rhodes Chamber Choir will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Saturday by bringing former members and music lovers together, while raising funds for charity.

Solo tenor and music teacher Mr Sibusiso Mkhize presented an engaging and technically adept concert recently at Beethoven Room in the Music Department.

A young Pietermaritzburg musician will be performing at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown this weekend, as part of the National Youth Orchestra.

The launch of the “Generations of Jazz Exhibition” at the Red Location Museum, on Friday, 21 June 2013 from 19:00 is already fully booked.

Christo Greyling is a student in the Music Department studying towards his Bachelor of Music degree. He is an intelligent young man with a passion for music and has dedicated his life to playing and teaching music.

MORE than 60 years ago, Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape, was South Africa’s "Little Jazz City". Almost every black home hosted an instrument, or a player or singer of note, and musical dynasties such as the Matshikiza family were being established.

FROM classical music to proudly South African offerings and jazz, an innovative alliance will showcase an exciting blend of local talent and visiting performers on stages in Nelson Mandela Bay.

“Sublime” was how one audience member described the music of renowned South African jazz musicians and composers, Andre Petersen and Feya Faku.

Jazz and blues lovers no longer have to wait until the Arts Festival to get their fix of swinging music in Grahamstown.

The invitation extended this year to SA born composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen by the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (JIMF) is of significance, especially in the context of SA classical music.

Christo Greyling, a second year student studying piano with Catherine Foxcroft at Rhodes University Department of Music and Musicology, won second place (R 11,300.00) in the prestigious 2012 UNISA South African Music Scholarship competition on 19 October 2012.

Rhodes student Brett de Groot, a Rhodes University student is debuting a musical tribute at this year’s Festival, and it promises to be anything but ordinary.

The George Male Voice Choir, conducted by Jan-Erik Swart, will be hosting a unique choral concert on Saturday 8 September.

Mia Pistorius has been offered a Commonwealth Scholarship to study towards an MPhil in Music Performance at the University of Oxford.

Historical music exhibit brings its sounds to EL AN ACCLAIMED travelling exhibition, For Future Generations by the late Hugh Tracey, opened at the East London Museum on Thursday night.

“Ways to keep warm” could have been the subtitle of the Grahamstown Sextet’s concert on a cold, wet night this week.v

BOXERS use gloves, while classical musicians use pianos and brass and string instruments to blow your mind. Some go as far as to say boxing is less painful than a classical maestro match-up.

PRISCILLA HALL The final concert of the Grahamstown Music Society's 2011 series, on Tuesday 18 October, is an entirely French programme of chamber music from Paris, played by Grahamstown's own musical heroes.

Since South Africa emerged from cultural isolation, the challenges of a globalised jazz industry has led to live performance becoming the dominant means of expression. Black jazz artists express performance confidence in ways very different to their fellows who were performing under the harsh apartheid laws, says Professor David Coplan of Wits University.

Today (January 18) is the second and final day of the Rhodes University History, Politics and Aesthetics of Jazz Conference: an opportunity for scholars to draw together the various threads of inquiry that currently characterise the study of South African jazz culture.

The emergence of jazz as a genre at the same time as the “Jim Crow” segregation laws were enacted in America, came under the spotlight during the keynote address delivered by Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African-American music at Harvard University, at the “Histories, Aesthetics and Politics of South African Jazz” Symposium held at Rhodes.

Rhodes University will be hosting a Histories, Aesthetics and Politics of South African Jazz Symposium from 17 – 18 January 2012. The conference will take place in the Beethoven Room and will be officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Saleem Badat.