THE HA!MAN IN CONCERT
add a commentThe HA!Man (Francois le Roux) is a spontaneous cellist, creating music that fuses his classical background with Africa and the world. He enchants and astonishes audiences the world over with his cello, original electronic accompaniments, keyboard, voice and dances. His music reflects his Southern African roots and his spontaneous approach challenges conventional ideas in both the serious and commercial music environment. He has created numerous soundtracks for plays, films and poetry performances and his talents brought him distinguished appointments such as music direction for the South African National Woman of the Year Gala (2001, 2002) and the 2004 “Ukkasie” Festival’s Royal Albert Hall event in London. Touted as one of South Africa’s top musical talents and a groundbreaking cellist/music creator, he operates independently, traveling about 80 000 km a year by car in four continents.
A critic has summed up the HA!Man experience as such: “Overall, the very fresh sound of original melodic invention and pulsing rhythms is utterly absorbing, as is his attractive and expressive body language and voice. His personality comes across as one that is profoundly thoughtful, musically lucid and thorough and showing sustained love of all creativity.” To view a video of the Ha!Man in action go to http://www.hamanworld.com/.
His emphasis on spontaneous music making has its roots in his early childhood, having constructed pieces on the piano since age four. At seven, he accompanied church songs by ear and at ten was an appointed church organist. Through his schooling years in Johannesburg he was a prominent prodigy, being trained in cello, piano, organ and composition, appearing – amongst other achievements – as a young soloist with symphony orchestras. Two years military training followed, as well as a BA cum laude in theology and philosophy at Stellenbosch University. His focus then returned to music, with an unfinished B Mus degree at UNISA and the decision to go on his own with purely improvised performances.
Having wide interests, including current affairs of South Africa and the world, the historical events of 1990 to 1994 reflects in his move away from the formal music environment. His “fresh start” took him to a life with a backpack – hitch-hiking South Africa from 1995 to 1999, and his diet changed to being based on a self-grown mix of raw sprouts. His art branched into writing, drawing, dancing and performance art, all based on a strict spontaneous approach (creation out of “nothing”). A minimal income came from selling copies of handwritten poems and drawings, performing on the streets of cities and towns throughout South Africa, as well as in intimate performances at private houses.
This spell was broken in 2000 when he bought a car and computer, swiftly moving into creating electronic accompaniments for his improvising cello, the production of soundtracks and giving workshops in Spontaneous Creativity at schools. In 2001 he became the “HA!Man,” the name serving to cap the identity he shaped since taking the independent road: a creator-in-the-moment, a net-worker of people and places, a proponent of three-dimensional thinking and a heart concerned with the human condition.
The “HA!Man Show” evolved into an event brimming with the energy of direct creativity, playful in its crossing of boundaries between mediums of expression (he includes the keyboard/piano, recorder, ocarinas, “cello drumming,” dancing and singing) and musical styles (he has enriched his classical background with a strong dash of Africa, world musics and popular genres). exciting in its interactivity – incorporating the audience into the creative process, and impressive in its high level of skill and structural backbone. He has already left a strong public mark, having performed in prominent venues like the Sandton Theatre on the Square, Evita se Perron (Darling), the Dorp Street Theatre (Stellenbosch) and coming up in 2008, a run in the Kalk Bay theatre. He has participated in minor and major festivals all over South Africa and has been appointed musical director of major events, like the South African Woman of the Year Awards Gala (Artscape Opera, Cape Town, 2001) and the Ukkasie Festival main event, Royal Albert Hall (London, 2004). He has appeared with and composed for prominent names like Sibongile Khumalo (soprano), Stef Bos (singer, Belgium) and Steve Hofmeyr (singer, Afrikaans) and has been profiled and interviewed a number of times on national radio and television.
Always a keen collaborator, he has standing artistic relationships with performers like Derek Gripper, (guitar), Paul Hanmer (jazz piano) and Laura Kirsten (classical piano). Others include Eric Leonardson (electronic sound-generation, Chicago), Cathleen Schandelmeier and other Chicago poets in three multi-media productions, Jan Seiden (American Indian flutes, Baltimore), Andrew Peters (township guitarist) and Sheri Brown (Bhuto dancer, Seattle). Among many projects involving music with poetry, is a collaborative album with Carina Stander, an up and coming Afrikaans poet.
His workshops have travelled widely: schools and universities (as well as prisons and mental institutions) all over South Africa; at prestigious instutions abroad, like Princeton University, Kansas University, Soka University near Los Angeles and Sahmyook University in Seoul, Korea. A well documented 3 day artist-in-residence project was run in the Niskayuna school district, New York State in 2006. Corporate engagements include Nashua Mobile, Liberty Life, LG (Korea), Akorn Destination Management (hotel Le Meurice, Paris) and JP Morgan (London). Coming up in May 2008: an artist-in-residence engagement (performing, workshopping, participating and providing creative interventions) for The Prince of Wales’s Business and the Environment Programme’s 5th Southern African Seminar (Cape Town) – a significant affirmation of the comprehensive competencies he has developed over the years.
The extensive travels do not prevent him from maintaining a prolific output. Since 2000, he has recorded over 800 tracks, compiled more than 60 albums, and filmed and produced over 40 video clips for the HA!Man Show. Poems and graphic art are also steadily forthcoming (the aim for 2008 is to make most of these accessible on the web, for the first time). Notable amongst live recordings are the full-hour improvisations: organ with audience participation – SABC (Johannesburg, 1999) and St George’s Cathedral (Cape Town, 2000); piano – SABC (Johannesburg 1998) and Genk (Belgium, 2007). Soundtracks completed include “Prins van Pretoria” (feature film), Andrew Buckland’s “Makana,” Reza de Wet’s “Lake,” Tanya Surtees’s “Gumbo” and Peter Krummeck’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (theatre); Gary Gordon’s “Tread” and Heike Gehring’s “Lady Anne” (physical theatre). He has also recently been commissioned to record the soundtrack for a global release TV documentary on the Knysna Elephants.
Laura Kirsten has joined the HA!Man since 2006 and is partnering the business, developing her own ways with HA! as a pianist, writer and dancer. The long term aim is to maintain the independent HA! platform and to grow it into a noticable global channel for art that is spontaneous in the deepest sense of the word. Francois believes that in many ways, such an art can contribute to humanity’s walk towards maturity, facing up to the grave challenges of our current adolescence. Being based in Hogsback, South Africa, is also part of his inspiration, as he strongly believes that it is partly by reconnecting to our African roots that we’ll be able to heal as a species. It is this HA! music from “bottom-up” that is felt in his performances, is promoted through all his activities and is hoped to be a long-lasting legacy.
MENU FOR “MY FATHER’S HAT MY MOTHER’S SHOES”
add a commentStarter [both options]
POTATO & LEEK SOUP served with Ciabatta
Main Courses – R250 menu
OSSOBUCO served with gremolata, basmati rice & roast vegetables
or
GRILLED SOLE served with rice and roast vegetables
Main Courses – R230 menu
CHRISPY DUCK PANCAKES served with a side salad
or
VEGETARIAN CURRY served with poppadum and sambals
Dessert [both options]
MALVA PUDDING and cream
or
CHEESE AND BISCUITS
COFFEE
MY FATHER’S HAT MY MOTHER’S SHOES
add a commentOn August 16, 2008, Aldo Brincat returns to KBT for the fifth time with “MY FATHER’S HAT, MY MOTHER’S SHOES”. Recently performed at the 2008 Grahamstown Festival, Cue of July 03 says of Aldo Brincat’s latest play
“An awesome use of magic and mime takes the audience on a sobering and heart rending journey. Writer and performer Aldo Brincat is impressive, expressive and thoroughly inspiring. He plays with your laughter buttons while pulling on your tear strings. An unusual brilliant experience”
DETAILS :
DATES : AUGUST 16 TO SEPTEMBER 06, 2008
[Performances Wednesday to Saturday]
PRICES : R230 / R250 p.p. – dinner & theatre
Thursday nights : R150 p.p. – light meal & ticket
Opening Night Special : R145 /R155 p.p. – dinner & theatre
Now resident in Botswana, Aldo has had a busy year since he was last in this neck off the woods culminating with the performance of his work in Boston and New York earlier this year and an invitation to return to the USA in November 2008 to perform his one-man show “THE EMANCIPATION OF ARNEY” [aka "ARNEY'S OUTRAGEOUS RISE].
Aldo’s unique ability to breathe magic into every character he plays and to make you both laugh and cry with his poignant portrayal of everyday people are put to full use in his new play, as is his training as a clown and a magician. “MY FATHER’S HAT, MY MOTHER’S SHOES” is a story of a magician/performer’s journey from childhood to manhood and is all about family, what you get from your parents and what you give to your children, and how, sometimes, our parents’ gifts and dreams become our own.
ALDO BRINCAT – A SHORT CV
Aldo grew up in a family of stage magicians. From an early age, he was taught the art of slight-of-hand and won two awards for his performances as a junior magician. His love of performance however led to a sense of frustration because of the restraints of the magician’s medium. In 1989 and 1990, Aldo studied in Paris under the legendary Jacque le Coq and thereafter performed and taught all over the world with the International Swedish Company, Eternia Dans Teater.
On his return to South Africa in 1992, Aldo fused the often opposing worlds of physical theatre and the spoken word, forging over the years a collection of thrilling and entertaining productions including “The House Husband”, “Defending the CaveBrats”, “King Kong”, “Arney’s Outrageous Rise”, “The Boy with a Clown’s Heart” and “Moron Than Off”.
Aldo Brincat is one of those rare theatre practitioners who has developed as considerable a following for his stage performances, as for his original scripts. His style of writing has been referred to by critics as “filmic, …sharp and insightful, … with imagery that haunts and moves,… hilarious yet full of pathos and sensitivity”. Aldo is able to write on anything from social issues such as racism, physical and emotional exile, to spiritual and ethnic identity. Writing from the age of 16 Aldo’s first play was performed at the school from which he graduated; Orchids for Moira, a two-hander, dealing with the hopes and regrets of life. Aldo is also a skilled dancer, mime, magician, circus performer and (by his own admission, a limited) musician.
Apart from his own work, Aldo has during his professional theatre career, starred in many classics, among them work ranging from Shakespeare (”Richard III” and “Hamlet”) to “Feydeau” as well as working in productions of “The Normal Heart” and “Royal Hunt of the Sun”.
“The House Husband” was nominated for three FNB Vita Awards and won the award for Best New South African Script in 2001/2002. Numerous other nominations for theatre awards have also come Aldo’s way for his various works.
Aldo also spends at least a third of his year teaching students from all walks of life and not necessarily in a classroom situation. His emphasis is on self-confidence and articulate communication through the medium of self-discovery and physical intelligence. In 2004, Aldo was invited to fulfil the role of Artist in Residence at Kearsney College in Kwa-Zulu Natal and currently he is the artistic director at the International School in Gaberone, Botswana.
Aldo believes passionately in theatre as a medium to entertain and educate, and which allows the development of skills and the confidence to exercise them. In this context he is dedicated to the expansion and growth of theatre in South Africa and the achieving of theatre’s recognition by the powers that be as worthy of support and encouragement.
