The 2025 National Conference will feature five nights of outstanding concerts in Dallas, Texas on March 18-22, 2025. The featured ensembles were invited to perform to showcase their exceptional artistic merit and unique choral perspectives. Starting in April, we will bring you details about the featured ensembles. This week, we feature The University of Pretoria (Tuks) Camerata.
University of Pretoria (Tuks) Camerata, South Africa
The University of Pretoria (Tuks) Camerata, which celebrated its 56th anniversary in 2024, has received many national and international accolades through the years. The choir’s mission is to contribute towards the cultural development of the student body, enrich the lives of the students and the broader community through choral singing, and act as cultural ambassadors of the University of Pretoria. The Camerata falls under the auspices of the School of the Arts (Faculty of Humanities) and consists of 76 full-time students from a variety of study fields, including medicine, engineering, theology, law, education, economics, accounting, plant sciences and music.
In July 2017, Tuks Camerata successfully defended the title won in July 2014 when they were declared the winners of the prestigious Grand Prix of Nations for Best Mixed Youth Choir in Riga, Latvia. During the same month, the choir performed at the 11th World Symposium of Choral Music hosted by the international Federation of Choral Music (IFCM) in Barcelona, Spain. In recent years, the choir has recorded four critically acclaimed albums, namely Written in the Stars (2021), Indodana (2017), Love and War (2016), and Phoenix (2014), three of which were nominated for South African Music Awards. uJehova (2024) is the fifth album under the Direction of Dr Michael Barrett and a sequel to the award-winning Indodana – the Camerata’s first album dedicated to Traditional South African Choral Music. In March 2025, the Tuks Camerata will have the honour of performing as the headline act at the National Conference of the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) in Dallas, Texas.
Cantate Cordibus, Cantate Oribus, Cantate Moribus.
Sing with the Heart, Sing with the Mouth, Sing with Life.
Michael Joseph Barrett is the conductor of the University of Pretoria (Tuks) Camerata and a senior lecturer in Choral Conducting in the Department of Music. He was a member of the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir from 1992 to 1997. He obtained the degrees BMus in Performing Arts (cum laude) in 2005 and MMus (Performing Arts), specialising in choral conducting, in 2008, both from the University of Pretoria. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCE) and a Performance Licentiate in Singing, both received in 2008, from Unisa. In 2017, Michael was awarded a Doctorate of Music degree (Performing Arts) in Choral Performance by the University of Pretoria.
Michael’s choirs have won numerous national and international awards, as well as choral competitions all over the world, including the Grand Prix of Nations (Latvia, 2017) and the 8th World Choir Games (Latvia, 2014). In 2017, Tuks Camerata was invited to perform at the World Choral Symposium in Barcelona, Spain, and in March 2025 they will perform as the Headline Choir at the National Conference of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Dallas (USA). The choir has released five albums, three of which were nominated for South African Music Awards. Michael is an active composer and arranger whose music is published internationally by Santa Barbara Music Publishers and Walton Music. He holds a Y2 Rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF), is on the Editorial Board of the World Journal for Choral Research, Practice and Leadership, and serves as an Advisory Board member of the World Choir Council (Interkultur – Germany). He is regularly invited to conduct Honour Choirs, present workshops and lectures, and adjudicate choral competitions both locally and abroad. He is the co-producer of Capital Singers, South Africa’s largest community choir project.
To learn more and follow the latest news about the 2025 ACDA National Conference, join us at https://acda.org/archives/events/2025-national-conference. For questions, email us at .
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