Event information
The UCT Symphony Orchestra joins the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO) for a joint concert at Cape Town City Hall, conducted by Brandon Phillips, resident conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and head of the CPYO. The programme moves from a new commission through Romantic concerto repertoire to Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World."
The evening opens with the world premiere of Chaos in Disguise, Part 1 by Kyle Benade, winner of UCT's 2025 Jan Royce Foundation Prize for Orchestral Composition. Pianist Isaac van der Merwe, winner of the 2025 Laura Searle Piano Competition, performs Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 before the orchestras close the programme together with Dvořák's symphony.
The CPYO draws around 70 young musicians from across Cape Town and surrounding communities, including outreach programmes in Gugulethu, Langa, Khayelitsha, Atlantis, Mamre and Nyanga, with CPO musicians involved in training participants.
Cape Town City Hall has served as the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra's main concert venue since the orchestra's founding in 1914, and is known for its pipe organ and concert acoustics.