30 Oct 2009 As preparations for the 2010 Johannesburg International Mozart Festival kick into gear, the man behind the music is readying himself for a momentous start to an exciting year.

Originally organized in 2006 in commemoration of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250th birthday anniversary, the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival has developed into a highly successful and well-loved classical music event, with conductor Richard Cock at the helm as Music Director, together with internationally renowned concert pianist Florian Uhlig as Artistic Director.

Cock, one of SA’s best known conductors, was born in Port Elizabeth. He says that his love for classical music was stirred when he first started to sing in the choir at Woodridge Preparatory School and the Diocesan College, Cape Town.

He pursued his musical studies at the Cape Town College of Music, from which he graduated in 1971.  In 1972, he won a scholarship to the Royal School of Church Music, where he was awarded several prizes and diplomas. In 1978 he became Director of Music at the Cathedral Choir School and assistant organist at Chichester Cathedral. During his years in England he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

After his return to South Africa in 1980, he breathed new life into the National Symphony Orchestra, as Music Director from 1991. His innovative spirit saw the orchestra expand its horizons with open-air events, such as the successful Emmarentia Gardens Winter series, Musical Fireworks and Pops concerts, Music in the Zoo and tours from Cape Town to Cairo.

It is as a choral trainer and conductor that Richard Cock is best known. He was organist and director of music at St Mary’s Cathedral for 12 years, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music for his services to Church Music in South Africa. He founded the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the internationally recognized Chanticleer Singers 28 years ago.

As conductor, he is in much demand countrywide for the popular Last Night of the Proms concerts and Songs of Praise. New milestones in recent years were conducting his first full-length opera, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, for PACOFS in Bloemfontein, and conducting the Julian Lloyd-Webber South Africa tour. In 2001, he conducted the Joshua Bell tour of South Africa and that of Lynn Harrell, and he regularly conducts the popular Starlight Classics for Rand Merchant Bank.

“Interaction with the audience and getting people to share my own love of music,” is Cock’s favorite part of being a conductor. His dream for classical music in South Africa is for it to become part of everyone's life. “It has so much to offer,” says Cock.

He has definitely done his part to make sure that this wish goes over into action. Many people feel he has done more than anyone in South Africa to popularize classical music, and he is always looking for new and innovative ways to bring music to new audiences.

Cock is also chairman of the Apollo Music Trust, and until recently he was one of the Musical Directors of the Nation-Building Massed Choirs Festival. He is on the Board of Trustees of Business Arts South Africa, and on the committee of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.

Through the Apollo Music Trust, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, the National Arts Council and the RMB Fund, Cock and his team regularly present educational concerts in centers as far afield as Grahamstown, Kimberley, Soweto, Alexandra, Eldorado Park, Brits, Polokwane, and more. These concerts are educational and aimed at enhancing young people’s knowledge of the orchestra and its various components. This is done through an interactive process with learners and over the past many years, hundreds of thousands of children from disadvantaged communities have enjoyed and gained from the experience which these concerts provide.

Children's Concerts are given each year in Johannesburg and Eldorado Park and reach about 8 000 learners between the age of 6 and 13 from nearly 80 schools throughout the Gauteng area. The idea is to introduce the children to music, the orchestra families and the individual instruments. In addition to the Children's concert, the Apollo Music Trust, supported by RMB, funds a Community Concert in Eldorado Park annually, featuring both children and adults and a wide range of music. Members of the community perform with the orchestra, and over the years these concerts have included the Choir from St Vincent's School for the Deaf and students from the National School of the Arts.

With the 20 Tenors, a concept that was formed after a chance conversation between GIBS Professor Jonathan Cook and himself, Cock and vocal coach Nicholas Nicholaidis visited several centers, auditioning tenors and put together a team representative of almost every province in South Africa. With choreographer and Strictly Come Dancing host Ian von Memerty as the director and choreographer, and with the backing of the Cape Philharmonic and Johannesburg Festival Orchestras for appearances at Starlight Classics, the 20 Tenors have been an immediate hit, setting the stage for unifying the nation through a collaboration between arts and sport, using the 2010 Soccer World Cup as platform.

Cock feels that there is a growing level of support for classical music from the South African public, but that the whole structure is fragile and needs more support from Government.

Bracing himself for an exceptionally busy year ahead, Richard Cock says that he is particularly looking forward to a bigger and better Johannesburg International Mozart Festival in 2010, and also to special concerts for the 30th Anniversary of the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the Chanticleer Singers.

For more information on the 2010 Festival, please visit www.join-mozart-festival.org

Tickets for the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival will be available through Computicket, and range between R80 and R165 per event.

About the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival

The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival provides a unique combination of classical performances on the highest international level with a keenly intelligent and creative approach to programming, together with an enterprising portfolio of all-encompassing education and outreach projects for children, students and audiences from all corners of society.