Cantare on stage
The Cantare Audire Choir will be performing Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël for the 2023 festive season.This work will be performed with soloists Emily Dangwa, Gretel Coetzee, Daphne Mupupa, Jacques du Preez and Eslon Hindundu, along with organ, strings and harp under the baton of South African conductor Xavier Cloete. The choir is also performing a variety of Christmas classics with Martina Visser conducting.
The choir was founded in 1972 by the late Ernst van Biljon and performed for the first time in the NG Moedergemeente as part of a Christmas concert that was held by the College of the Arts (then the Conservatoire).
Cantare Audire (meaning “to sing and listen”), brought international acclaim to Namibia in 1984 when the choir won the first prize for mixed choirs at the Llangollen Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. They have undertaken many tours to, amongst others, Austria, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, America, Scandinavia and South Africa. In 2010, Cantare participated as “Voices of Namibia” in the World Choir Games in China and brought back a gold and two silver medals.
Cantare Audire has given several a cappella concerts throughout Namibia over the years, and especially their Easter and Christmas concerts became very popular in Windhoek. They have often performed together with orchestra and soloists to bring works like Händel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung”, Beethoven’s Mass in C and most recently, Vivaldi’s Gloria to the stage.
The Christmas Concert takes place on Friday 1 and Sunday 3 December at 19:00 at the Dutch Reformed Church in Pionierspark. Tickets are available via KuduKey and will also be sold at the door at performances.