“De Vries coaxes and obtains an extraordinary range of tone and sound from
her marimba in meeting the demands of the score"
Marimba One™ endorsed artist, Magdalena de Vries, is regarded as South Africa’s foremost classical
marimbist.
A former student of Suzette Brits (Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre) De Vries won a large range of South
African music prizes including two overseas scholarships, which enabled her to pursue postgraduate
studies in percussion as the first ever foreign student at the Tokyo College of Music under Professor
Atsushi Sugahara.
While in Japan, she was invited to join the Percussion Museum (resident percussion ensemble in Tokyo),
made her solo recital debut, received a Tokyo College of Music study grant and obtained a postgraduate
diploma cum laude.
Whilst living in the UK (2000 – 2003), her musical engagements included a UK-France concert
tour with Ensemble Bash; CD recordings with Errollyn Wallen and Continuum Ensemble; workshops run
by Ensemble Bash, Sinfonia 21, spnm; performing with a variety of contemporary music groups
including Premiere Crew, Modern Band, and ESO at various venues, including Australia House
(London), Purcell Room (London South Bank Centre), King’s College (Cambridge), Huddersfield
Contemporary Music Festival and Linbury Studio Theatre (Royal Opera Covent Garden).
As an orchestral percussionist, Magdalena has worked with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony
Orchestra (Tokyo), attended the 2000 Festival de Musica de Canarias as a member of the former Cape
Town Philharmonic Orchestra, attended the 2014 Gabala International Music Festival (Azerbaijan) as
member of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and currently regularly works as a timpanist and
percussionist with the Johannesburg Philharmonic and Phoenix Co. Orchestra.
In May 2001 she won first prize in the Performing Australian Music Competition in London and
was subsequently featured as guest soloist on the live radio broadcast of BBC3 In Tune.
In January 2003 she opened the series Music Oz: The Australia you’ve never heard before at
St John’s Smith Square in London and appeared on the invitation of the Australian High Commissioner as
guest artist at the Australia Day celebrations in London.
May 2003 saw the debut recital of EXPOSURE (marimba/saxophone duo with British saxophonist Sarah
James) in London’s Purcell Room, and during June/July of the same year she returned to Tokyo on
invitation of Prof. Sugahara to perform a series of solo, ensemble and orchestral concerts.
EXPOSURE continued their success by completing a South African concert tour in March/April 2004.
In 2003 she formed Duo FourIVTwo with South Africa’s foremost vibraphonist, Frank Mallows.
The duo performed to great acclaim throughout South Africa, specifically focusing on South African
repertoire.
Magdalena has performed a large number of world premières both in South Africa and abroad, including
works by Errollyn Wallen (UK), Toshi Hosokawa (UK), Nigel Wood (UK), Peter Klatzow, Robert
Fokkens, Paul Hanmer, Clare Loveday, Hendrik Hofmeyr, Andile Khumalo, Allan Stephenson, Braam du
Toit and Franco Prinsloo. In 2016 she presented an entire programme of newly composed South African
works for solo marimba. This performance, entitled Fragment, was nominated for a Kanna Award: Best
Classical Music Performance at the 2016 KKNK.
Since 2005 her concerto performances included works by Ney Rosauro, Alan Hovhaness, Bèla
Bartok and Karl Jenkins. In June 2013 she performed the world première of Peter Klatzow’s Concerto
for Marimba, Vibraphone and Strings; in November 2014 the world première of Toccata Exotica for solo
marimba and orchestra by Allan Stephenson and in September 2016 Hendrik Hofmeyr’s Concerto for
Marimba and Strings. In November 2016 she was one of the invited soloists to tour Russia as part of the
SA-Russia Cultural exchange programme and performed to great acclaim in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. De Vries returned to the Cape in January 2022 to perform Stephenson’s Toccata Exotica with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of maestro Bernard Gueller, and inSeptember 2022 performed as soloist with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Boico. In 2023 she performed as soloist with the Freestate Symphony Orchestra in Bloemfontein.
Since 2009 Magdalena has collaborated with various school choirs, competing, and winning at national and international level.
As recording artist, she is featured on CDs by Errollyn Wallen, Claire Johnston, Denzil Weale, Hannelie
Rupert, Ockie Vermeulen and Neil Sandilands. Her 1st solo album – MarimBaroque – was released in
November 2013.
As adjudicator, she was chairman of the Stellenbosch National Ensemble Competition (2005 – 2015)
and has been on the panel of the Performing Australian Music International Competition in London,
ATKV Muziq and the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship. As an educator, she lectures percussion at Northwest
University in Potchefstroom, Wits University in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha,
Jeppe High School for Girls, Kingsmead College, Roedean School(SA), and presents master classes
and lecture demonstrations throughout South Africa. She has also set all the percussion syllabi for the
University of South Africa Directorate of Music practical examinations.
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