Munich Chamber Orchestra
Xandi van Dijk, viola/ conductor

Composer’s Note
This Sarabande is the only work where I wrote two versions simultaneously (for flute and piano and for solo viola and strings) and in ONE day! At that time (the 90’s), I used to conduct Baroque Concerts regularly in the German Lutheran Church (the Sankt Martini Kirche) in Cape Town– one of the oldest churches in South Africa with a long musical tradition. I have always loved the stately and elegant feel of the Sarabande (a French dance) with the accent on the second beat of the bar. This piece was composed in 1995. The position of principal viola was shared between my son, Xandi van Dijk and his grandmother, Anne Essek - who died later that year. The dedication reads:
For my son, Xandi - who first played the solo – and to the memory of violist, Anne Essek (1917-1995)

(Péter Louis van Dijk)

Performed at the Schwere Reiter as part of the Munich Chamber Orchestra's "Songbook" series on 25 May 2023.

Asparuh Tashev, sound

Sarabande for Strings

From the album "Childhood Classics"
(Prestige Records, 1999)

Performed by the South African National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Louis Lane, Narrator: Richard Cock

The Musicians Of Bremen

Radio Broadcast of the South African premiere of Windy City Songs, performed on 22 June 2008 in the City Hall, Cape Town by NMMU University Choir, akKOORd, Kenmere Primary School Choir, Erub Children's Choir with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.

Conductor : Péter Louis van Dijk
Soloists : Pretty Yende & Musa Ngqungwana

Windy City Songs:  1. Lost, 2. Skyscraper - The Windy City

Windy City Songs 7. Back Yard

Windy City Songs:  6. Joy

Windy City Songs:  4. Pals

Windy City Songs:  3. To A Dead Man

South African National Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Peter Louis van Dijk
City Hall, Johannesburg, 1995 (premiere performance)

About Nothing

San Gloria was commissioned by the Diocesan College, Cape Town and received its first performance in the War Memorial Chapel under the direction of Garmon Ashby in August 1990. The work, inspired by San (or Bushman) themes and rhythms attempts to blend the music of these gentle, virtually extinct and ancient African people with an abridged version of the ancient (and virtually extinct) Latin poem Gloria in excelsis Deo. This work seeks to represent two totally unrelated cultures - both ancient, symbolic and relevant in their own right - thereby highlighting exactly those elements in Southern African society which, at times, excite us and sometimes mutually exasperate. San Gloria has received a number of performances in South Africa, Bophuthatswana and Botswana, the United States and Britain. The work is dedicated to the composer's parents, Pieter and Gré.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo

South African National Symphony Orchestra
Chamber Choir of the SABC
Peter Louis van Dijk, conductor
City Hall, Johannesburg, 1993 (live recording)

Susa Ninna

Chicago Children's Choir
Josephine Lee, conductor

from Chicago Children's Choir: Spring Gala Concert

Bells

Ray Lindquist (percussion)
Steve Coltrini (percussion)

Recorded at the SABC Studios in Cape Town, 1988

Papilio (for percussion duo)

Nelson Mandela Metropole University Choir
Peter Louis van Dijk, conductor

From "Plea from Africa", recorded Stellenbosch, 2007
www.choir.nmmu.ac.za

Horizons (choral version)

Sharon Fligner-Lindquist, oboe d'amore
National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC
Richard Cock, conductor

Recorded SABC Studios, 1987

Elegy - Dance - Elegy (for oboe d'amore, strings, harp and timpani)

Nelson Mandela Metropole University Choir
Junita Lamprecht - van Dijk, conductor
String Quintet

From "Plea from Africa", recorded Stellenbosch, 2007
www.choir.nmmu.ac.za 

Magnificat (choir and string quintet)

Western Cape Youth Orchestra
Tygerberg Childrens Choir
Sjoerd Beute, Tenor
Neville Dove, conductor

Live recording, Nico Malan (now Artscape) Opera House, 1986

Youth Requiem

Péter Louis van Dijk, narrator
John Eagar, baritone
Xandi van Dijk, boy 

CAPAB Orchestra
Stewart Kershaw, conductor

Live at the Grahamstown Festival, 1990

The Selfish Giant

Péter Louis van Dijk is an internationally performed composer resident in South Africa. His works include Horizons, written for and recorded by The King’s Singers, the string quartet "iinyembezi" and more recently the opera, Mandela Trilogy, performed to critical acclaim at the Welsh National Opera in 2012, in Melbourne, Australia (2013) and at the Deutsches Theater in Munich in 2014. Further performances are scheduled for New York, Chicago and several European cities between 2015-17.  Other compositions include "the song the san women sang" for the Mainzer Klavierduo, Magnificat for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir and Sontonga Quartet and Windy City Songs for soloists, double choir and orchestra, commissioned by the Chicago Children’s Choir for their 50th Anniversary Concert at the Lyric Opera, Chicago (2007).  

Van Dijk has composed five operas, including Out of Time (commisioned for the University of Cape Town’s 150th Anniversary Celebrations, 2010), two ballets, chamber music, several educational and choral-orchestral works such as The Musicians of Bremen, Follow that Flute!, the cantata The Selfish Giant (most recently performed at the Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu as the Narrator), Youth Requiem, a Te Deum and several orchestral arrangements of traditional African songs such as Bawo Thixo Somandla, Ingoma kaNtsikana and others. Following the success of Horizons, Van Dijk’s choral compositions, such as the Bushman-inspired San Gloria (performed at Europe Cantat in Turin, Italy 2013), Bells (commissioned by the Chicago Children’s Choir), Cessate, Magnificat and Chariots (jointly commissioned by the Texas State Chorale and the NMMU Choir) have gained considerable popularity. Chariots is programmed for the Texas All-State Choir (2015).

Péter Louis van Dijk has more than a dozen CDs to his credit, including recordings for the RCA Victor Red Seal and Marco Polo labels. He is published by Oxford University Press, Hal Leonard, Accolade Musikverlag and Prestige. 

Dr van Dijk has lectured at the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, was Senior Lecturer in Composition and Musicology at Rhodes University and currently teaches Composition and Orchestration plus assisting his wife, Junita Lamprecht-Van Dijk teaching graduate choral conducting at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.
Van Dijk has conducted most major South African orchestras, given workshops and performances across South Africa, in the USA with the CCC and the CYSO (Chicago), at Texas State University (San Marcos TX) and in China at the University of Technology, Beijing.

Péter Louis van Dijk

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