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The Composer:

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François de Villiers understood, during a Musical Appreciation

Course, that he could, and should, start composing. As his first

attempts were poor, he realised that he had to study harmony.

After studies with the Royal Schools and UNISA his musical

education culminated in a Licentiate in Music Theory and

Harmony (2001). By then, having had to listen to the Moderns

day and night, most of the pleasure in listening to music had

evaporated. Undaunted, however, he burned the midnight oil

in applying oddly shaped golf clubs to five parallel lines.

 

He studied harmony with Marianne Feenstra, counterpoint

with John Coulter, percussion with Jon Wishnuff and

orchestration with Prof Walter Mony. He had individual

composition lessons (briefly) with Martijn Padding,

who was critical of his writing for flute (rightly so),

Theo Loevendie, who taught him to expect a break-through

(sometime... eventually...), and Prof Robert Rollins who taught him the importance of traditional notation even when writing avant-garde music. He attended the SASRIM 2016 Composers' Meeting with Kevin Volans as the Composition Lecturer, who taught him that it is wiser to obtain a commission first, before embarking on a composition.

 

He has composed sporadically since 1998, but fame and fortune and performances have eluded him so far. He has retired from his day job due to the unfortunate sell by dates on government appointments, in 2015, and now lives in Plettenberg Bay on the lovely Garden Route with his wife Mariana.

 

 

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