CUPID’s ARROW

Love songs from the 17th century

Lente Louw and Lusibalwethu Sesanti (mezzo sopranos), Uwe Grosser (lute) and Rosamund Roth (viola da gamba).

Falling in love can be quite the ordeal.  The resulting euphoria is cruelly balanced with heartache and confusion, especially when the love is unrequited or inconvenient for the victim. These themes, thoroughly explored by ancient poets and composers, continue to echo into all the good love songs of today.  Lutesong Consort presents a selection of poignant Italian love duets from (mostly) the 17th century that move – not only the emotions, but also the feet. Audiences can expect exquisitely interwoven melodic lines, complemented by the delicate, otherworldly sounds of period appropriate instruments. They will also find their toes tapping to some surprisingly catchy tunes, reminding us that these were the pop songs of the time.  

BIOGRAPHIES

Lente Louw (mezzo-soprano) is an established oratorio, chamber music and ensemble singer, originally from Pretoria. She holds an LLM from North West University, where she began her voice training under lieder specialist Werner Nel. After relocating to Cape Town, she regularly sang under the baton of the respected Barry Smith from 2008 until his retirement in 2015. She was a student of Nellie du Toit, Emma Renzi and Hanna van Schalkwyk.

She has performed solo and chamber music recitals with some of South Africa’s foremost pianists, and regularly performs with Albie van Schalkwyk. Over the past fifteen years she has developed a keen interest in and large repertoire of early music. She has received master classes from Kobie van Rensburg and Lawrence Zazzo.

As a founding member of the Cape Consort-ensemble she sang in around sixty concerts, including: their ‘Monteverdi Project’ (a collaboration with the Fugard Theatre that culminated in three successful runs of madrigal concerts), as well as the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under the direction of Marí Borstlap. In 2013 she toured Germany and Switzerland in the role of Second Woman for the German-based early music ensemble, cosi facciamo‘s production of Dido and Aeneas. In 2015 she completed the practical requirements for an MMus in Singing Performance under Minette Pearce at the University of Stellenbosch.

In 2017 she founded the Lutesong Duo for early music with lutenist husband Uwe Grosser. They have performed at arts festivals and concert venues in Cape Town and Germany. The Lutesong Duo recorded a successful album, Chiaroscuro in 2018. In 2021 Lente founded the Lutesong Consort, an ensemble of up to 12 singers and lute-family instruments that specialise in vocal repertoire from mostly the 16^th and 17^th centuries. They regularly collaborate with Erik Dippenaar’s Cape Town Baroque Orchestra for larger projects and appear yearly at the Cape Town Baroque Festival. She teaches singing at Bishops Diocesan College and Herschel School for Girls in Cape Town.

Lusibalwethu Sesanti

Uitenhage born Lusibalwethu Sesanti started vocal training with Sonja van Amstel at Rhenish Girls High School in 2010. She went on to become the youngest winner of the Mabel Quick Singing Competition in 2015, aged 19, under the tutelage of Minette Pearce .Notable achievements include being a top 10 Prizewinner for the Muziqanto Singing competition. (2018), 2x recipient of the UNISA Nellie du Toit award for singing, as well as being a 2x finalist at the Voices of South Africa Singing competition

Operatic lead roles include The Old Maid and the Thief (Miss Todd), The Fairy Queen (Mopsa), Trial by Media (Judge) and Amagokra (Umfazi 2). Sesanti made her official musical theater debut as Sister Sophia in Pieter Toerien’s The Sound of Music, in collaboration with Cape Town Opera, and looks forward to her upcoming season as part of the cast for David Kramer’s Orpheus McAdoo and My Fair Lady by PTP and CTO.

Sesanti is currently reading for her MMus in ethnomusicology, and is a member of Cape Town Opera’s vocal ensemble, singing under the tutelage of Hanna van Schalkwyk.

Rosamund Roth

Rosamund Roth was born in Pretoria and started her musical education at an early age. She attended Pro Arte High School for the Arts and went on to obtain her BMus from the University of Stellenbosch, where she studied under Magdalena Roux. There she also completed honours degrees in both Latin and English Literature. During her studies she played with professional orchestras like the CPO and the KZNPO on a regular basis as an ad hoc player.

Her studies next took her to Zürich, Switzerland where she studied in the class of Prof. Roel Dieltiens. She obtained a master’s in music Pedagogy, as well as a Masters in Transdisciplinary Studies from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. She was very active as a teacher in St. Gallen, Appenzell, and Zurich, and as a performer all around Switzerland. She was co-principal cellist with the Zürcher Kammerphilharmonie for six years.

During the Covid pandemic, she started playing the viola da gamba after discovering a great passion for early music and took private lessons with Paolo Pandolfo in Basel. In 2022 she returned to Cape Town to play full time with the CPO, and to focus on a career as a performer on the cello, the baroque cello, and the viola da gamba.

Uwe Grosser

Uwe Grosser studied classical guitar and Bavarian folk music at the Richard Strauss Conservatory (Munich), historical plucked string performance at Musikhochschule Würzburg and lute building with Robert Lundberg. Uwe built the set of lute instruments on which he most often performs. He has played basso continuo in period performances at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatstheater Stuttgart and Nuremburg Opera, and has appeared as guest in many German period ensembles, most notably Seven Tears and così facciamo, both of which he co-founded.

Over the last 20 years Uwe has collaborated with many local South African ensembles, including Ensemble Refugium, Cape Consort, Cape Town Opera, Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, Dizu Kuduhorn Band and Here be Dragons. He recorded his solo album, Fantasia, in Stellenbosch in 2003.

Together with his wife, Lente Louw, he formed early music ensemble Lutesong in 2016 and recorded an album, Chiaroscuro, in 2017. In 2021 the Lutesong brand was expanded to a form a vocal ensemble, the Lutesong Consort, and Uwe has played with them at the Stellenbosch Woordfees, Cape Town Baroque festival, Greyton Genedendal Classics for All and various concert venues around the Western Cape. He also plays and teaches guitars (classical, electric and bass), brass, zither and clarinet, and currently teaches guitar at Rondebosch Boys High and The Music HQ in Cape Town.

He has more than 40 years’ teaching experience at all levels, and enjoys arranging music in various styles to suit the level and taste of each of his students. Uwe has five black belts in Jiu-Jitsu – a sport he has practiced actively for over 40 years.