Wednesday 16 April 25: Andrea Bocelli’s 30 Year Anniversary Tour electrified Cape Town, packing in music-lovers at the DHL Stadium in Green Point for an unforgettable evening with ‘the world’s most beloved tenor’. Backed by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town, directed by our own WBHS Head of Music, Mr Richard Haigh, the show and our City went viral globally.
With Wynberg’s Mr Ethan Rutter, our drum kit and percussion teacher, performing with the Cape Town Philharmonic on the evening, and the Philharmonia Choir rehearsing in the Nussbaum Auditorium ahead of this international music milestone, our Music Department is at the heart of performance, learning, and teaching in Cape Town.
Building on record awards at the 2024 Eisteddfodau, Wynberg Music is in great hands. We spoke to Mr Haigh:
Ethan and I were thrilled and honoured to be a part of such an auspicious production, which will live in our memories for years to come. These opportunities, experienced on an extremely high professional level, across all aspects of performing and production, add huge value to us, as teachers. This, in turn, comes home to Wynberg and can only benefit our boys.
A year ago, the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town was approached as the choir of choice to back the Andrea Bocelli 30th Anniversary world-wide tour for the Cape Town performance.
The music for the Bocelli event was received in February 2025, so the choir had very little time to learn it – opera choruses made up much of the selection, and are outside the choir’s normal repertoire. Owing to a lack of availability at the choir’s normal rehearsal venue, we used our Wynberg Nussbaum Auditorium in the Alf Morris Centre to rehearse on a few occasions.
Ed notes:
Mr Richard Haigh has been the Director of Music of The Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town since January 2013. The Philharmonia is the largest oratorio choir in South Africa. Under Richard’s Directorship, the choir has recorded a CD, produced a flash mob in Cavendish Square at the centre’s request, taken the choir on 3 tours and a 4th planned later in 2025, collaborated with three overseas choirs for performances of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Handel’s Messiah and on top of the Andrea Bocelli concert on Wednesday 16 April 2025, the choir will be performing two performances of Handel’s Messiah in City Hall over the Easter weekend.
