Music not of place, but of time. Blake is not unsure of who he is and where he lives. He is not obsessed with Africa, nor is he chained to ‘the West’. He is perhaps the first South African composer to be unselfconsciously an African composer. His are the blueprints and stratagems of a new cosmopolitan South African sound.
Calendar 2013 – 2014
Following the performance, the publication of Michael Blake’s most recent recording String Quartets 1 & 2 and Piano Quintet will be launched, with a short introduction by Willem Boshoff.
Michael Blake plays Michael Blake - Music from Michael Blake’s Collected Shorter Piano Pieces and the works on which they were modelled.
Concert To Morija Birdscape with Luigi Russolo for two-track tape (2013).
Not commissioned by the SAMRO Foundation.
New works 2013
Morija Birdscape with Luigi Russolo (2013) for two-track tape
Piano Concerto No 2 (2013)
Fp: March 2014; Odeon Theater, Wien, Austria; Ensemble Reconsil, Roland Freisitzer conductor
Ukukhalisa Umrhubhe for umrhubhe and tape (2013)
Commissioned by Festival d’Automne d’Paris
Fp: 20h00, Sunday 20 October 2013; Opera National de Paris - Festival d’Automne à Paris, Paris, France; Mantombi Matotiyana umrhubhe, Christophe Mazzella sound diffusion
Standing Stone Circle for harp and peripatetic violinist (2012-2013)
Fp: Sunday 24 November 2013; Tokyo, Japan; tbc
Recently published articles 2011-2012
Approaching the silence of patterns: the music of Michael Blake
by Martin Scherzinger
NewMusicSA, Johannesburg, Issues 9 & 10, published September 2012
Don Maclennan and Music
by Christine Lucia and Michael Blake
in No Other World, ed. Dan Wylie and Craig MacKenzie
Print Matters, Cape Town, August 2012
Des ponts entre Blancs et Noirs
by Denis-Constant Martin
Politis, Paris, 18 January 2012
Miniature blueprints, spider stratagems: a Michael Blake retrospective at 60
by Stephanus Muller
The Musical Times, London, Winter 2011
New CD Release 2012
*Michael Blake piano
Other events 2012-2013
| 1 January 2012 | Appointed Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University |
| 6 January – 5 February 2012 | Composer in Residence, Nirox Foundation |
| 22 January – 5 February 2012 | Sterkfontein Composers Meeting established |
| 6 August 2012 | Colloquium at Stellenbosch University: ‘Sterkte’ in Sterkfontein: Towards a Composing Culture in South Africa |
| 4 September 2012 | John Cage Centenary Concert at Stellenbosch University |
| 15 – 28 October 2012 | Joint Residence with Willem Boshoff, Nirox Foundation |
| 10 – 25 February 2013 | Sterkfontein Composers Meeting |
