The Woordfees in collaboration with the Endler Concert Series is honoured to present the emotionally charged work, Moments in a Life, by young South African composer, Matthijs van Dijk, featuring struggle icon Denis Goldberg reading from his autobiography.

Born in 1933, Goldberg grew up in a home committed to opposition to apartheid. He was involved with the Congress of the People and the shaping of the Freedom Charter in 1954/55, and was detained under the State of Emergency for four months in 1960 after the Sharpeville massacre. Goldberg joined the ANC’s armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe when it was formed in 1963. On 11 July 1963, he was arrested at Liliesleaf farm in Rivonia, Johannesburg, and charged, along with former president Nelson Mandela and others, under the Sabotage Act with conspiracy to overthrow the state and other charges. He was sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment on 12 June 1964, but was released on 28 February 1985 after serving 22 years in prison. After his release, Goldberg lived in exile in the United Kingdom, and returned to South Africa in 2002.

Van Dijk’s work, titled Moments in a Life, consists of stories of various pivotal moments in Goldberg’s life. The text was extracted from Goldberg’s autobiography, A life for freedom – The mission to end racism in South Africa.

This work will be coupled with Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, featuring some of S.A.’s leading classical musicians: Minette du Toit-Pearce (mezzo-soprano) and Stéfan Louw (tenor).