Owen Dalton, MMus student at Stellenbosch University (SU), has been crowned the winner of the third SA Composers’ Competition.
The 26-year-old claimed the title for his piece “Ramblings of the Mind”, which is run by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO). The final round of the competition was held at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parow on Saturday 15 March under the direction of Jeremy Silver.
Dalton won a cash prize of R20 000 and the title of composer in residence with the CPO. The runners-up were Chesney Palmer (Sandton) and Anthonie Jansen van Rensburg (Somerset West).
Dalton was runner-up in the previous two competitions.
“Winning this competition is an immense privilege, and it has provided me with an invaluable opportunity for growth as a young composer,” he said.
“I am incredibly grateful to Maestro Silver for his efforts digesting our scores, to the CPO for their time and tremendous playing as well as everyone else involved in putting the competition together.”
The jury was unanimous in its choice, said judging panel chairperson Hendryk Hofmeyr. “All the works were successfully performed with great conviction. Owen’s piece is remarkable for its original exploration of rich timbres and gestures. It is difficult to use so many gestures and make it convincing and he succeeded.”
Dalton follows in the footsteps of previous winners Conrad Asman (2023) and fellow SU student Lize Briel (2024), whose commissioned work, “Tesselation”, was performed while the judges were deliberating. The panel comprised composers Pieter Bezuidenhout, Amy Crankshaw, Arthur Feder, Clare Loveday and Lise Morrison, with Antoni Schonken as convenor and Hofmeyr as non-voting chairperson.
The competition attracted more than 20 entries from across the country and is a sign that classical music continues to flourish with a new generation of talented young composers.
“All contestants wrote pieces of up to 15 minutes for orchestra with the use of indigenous instruments as an option,” said CPO CEO Louis Heyneman.
“It was interesting to hear how Lise Briel continued developing last year’s piece ‘Echoes’ and its use of the uhadi to include in ‘Tesselation’ the use of the kiganda, a marimba-like instrument.”
