Temmingh celebrates KZNPO 30th

DURBAN North resident and founder member of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra and resident conductor, Lykele Temmingh, has contributed significantly to the orchestra’s work over the past three decades.

Life in South Africa begins

LYK, as he is affectionately known to friends and colleagues, immigrated to South Africa at the age of four. The Temmingh family quickly settled into their new life in Cape Town where music played a dominant role from the start.

Lyk’s father, a distinguished performer, took up the prestigious post of organist in the Groote Kerk at the top of Adderley Street, and also lectured at the University of Cape Town. Lyk’s two siblings, Roelof and Henk, both went on to become well-known composers.

Lyk himself took up the violin at the age of six, studying under Paul Martens. Lessons continued until he was in what was then Standard 5, when he dropped the instrument for seven years. This hiatus culminated in a one-year stint studying medicine, he said, to the short-lived delight of his hopeful mother, before he was inevitably drawn back to music.

Where it all began

AFTER completing his Bachelor of Music Performers degree at the University of Stellenbosch, Lyk began his career as a violinist with the Cape Performing Arts Board in 1977.

Six years later he moved to Bloemfontein to accept a teaching post at the Musikon, and to explore the opportunity of playing more symphonic repertoire, as a change from long stints of pit work playing for opera and ballet seasons in Cape Town.

After nine months in Bloemfontein, Lyk met Peter Hamblin and David Tidboald, who were in town auditioning musicians to join the soon-to-be-launched Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban.

Peter Hamblin and David Tidboald promptly enrolled Temmingh who joined the Second Violin section of the new orchestra for its inaugural season in 1983. He was later appointed co-principal of the section.

Taking charge

THE shift to conducting followed, after a suggestion in 1985 by his father that he might consider taking up this option. The suggestion soon bore fruit, with the invaluable opportunity of learning on the job from a string of guest conductors, not least from his mentor, the orchestra’s principal conductor, David Tidboald. Lyk is quick to express his gratitude to him for encouraging him to build the confidence to make his move onto the podium.

Other influential figures readily acknowledged in Lyk’s own career on the podium have been the conductors, Victor Yampolsky (a close friend) and Roberto Benzi, with whom Lyk took a number of master classes.

“I also gained early experience when Professor Gerrit Bon, then head of music at Natal University, asked me to conduct his newly formed student string ensemble. This, in turn, led to my working with the Durban Municipal Orchestra (DMO), when I was asked by its conductor, Michael Hankinson, to take over a rehearsal for his farewell concert prior to his relocating to Johannesburg. The DMO players then invited me to fill his post which I did for more than three years.”

Lyk recalls that his debut appearance on the Natal Philharmonic’s podium was for an all-Gershwin lunch hour concert, which took place in the Playhouse Opera Theatre on 31 October 1987.

“Graham Scott, then the orchestra’s staff conductor, had contracted jaundice, so I got to stand in for him.”

He remembers that his first symphony concert programme comprised Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 2, played by the celebrated South African pianist, Anton Nel. On that occasion, Lyk’s performance on the podium drew a laconic nod of approval from maestro Tidboald who told him, “You looked like an old pro!”

Life with the KZNPO

BY 1991, Lyk had made up his mind to commit himself completely to conducting when he was appointed the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra’s assistant conductor to David Tidboald. The same year he was the recipient of the SAA Performing Arts’ Award for his services to music.

As assistant conductor, and in freelance music circles, Lyk developed a wide repertoire in a variety of performance genres, embracing educational programmes, symphony concerts, outdoor popular programmes, major choral works, opera and ballet.

Now as a resident conductor of the KZNPO, Lyk appears regularly on the orchestra’s concert podium. And since 2004 he has proudly taken on the role of selector and conductor of the National Youth Concerto Festival.

Behind the scenes

BEHIND the scenes, aside from unstintingly sharing his expertise with hundreds of young musicians, Lyk Temmingh continues to make his imprint felt on the KZN Philharmonic’s day-to-day operations, helping to run the administrative portfolios of vacancies and recruitment, and upholding the KZN Philharmonic’s exceptionally high standard of performance.