We all love a good success story!

What a week! It started out lovely, then went to fabulous and ended effing amazing!! 🤩

In orchestra life you have your meh weeks, 🥱 , your ‘that was nice’ weeks 👌🏻 and your 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 epic weeks (and multiple variants in between of course). This week was one of those epic ones for me.

No, we didn’t have a world famous soloist or conductor, we didn’t play epic pieces from Mahler or R. Strauss, but this week was a culmination of epic proportions none the less. Three young men coming together on our stage showing that Cape Town and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra produces world talent and is not afraid to support and showcase them and not without success!

Standing ovations for a newly written violin concerto is rarely seen, but after Jeffrey Armstrong played the last virtuoso notes of the Matthijs van Dijk violin concerto conducted by Brandon Phillips the hall erupted with sounds of gratitude and love. Such an incredible piece played so masterfully and accompanied with such precision due to the maestro deserved nothing less.

So this is the success story you think… well, yes, but it’s not the only one.

Jeffrey Armstrong joint the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra some 10 years ago and it was clear then already he has incredible talent. His tone and timing was so beautiful and he was only a teenager then. He went to go study in Birmingham and is currently studying in Hannover, but he comes ‘home’ often (thank goodness!!) and has turned into a lovely solo and chamber music player all over the world with his personality to match.

Matthijs Van Dijk I met in my first year in Cape Town (2004) when he still was a frequent ad hoc on violin with the CPO, so frequent he was basically a full time player 😉. Over the last 19 years we’ve all watched him grow into this established composer writing one beautiful composition after another and gets played all over the world. And now, in his hometown, he gets the deserving standing ovation for another great piece! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Then there is maestro Brandon Phillips. From meeting him back in 2004 as a humble, insecure, but oh so talented ‘laaitie’ (and very attractive… 😊) bassoon player in the CPO to seeing him now standing in front of me, completely in charge of the orchestra where his professional career started, in a full on symphony concert with beautiful ideas and leading us masterfully through a complex violin concerto I am so proud of this guy! He’s done such great projects over the recent years with a highlight for me watching him come down the steps in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam when he conducted the MIAGI orchestra on their tour. Together with Arjan Tien in the audience we sat there like a proud mommy and daddy! 😉 Brandon is now full time engaged with the University of Cape Town.

So not 1, 2 or 3 success stories, but 4! These 3 talented young men and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra for supporting young talents, having an education program and a youth orchestra through which many young South African musicians have found their way to be successful musicians.

I repeat: What an epic week! And what a joy to be part of this for almost 20 years now 🫶🏻

To be continued … 🙂