Stefans Grové

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Stefans Grové (born 23 July 1922, Bethlehem, Orange Free State, South Africa) is a South African composer. "He is regarded by many as Africa's greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive compostional voices of our time" ^[1]. He studied at the University of Cape Town under Erik Chisholm before becoming the first South African to be awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. He took his Master's at Harvard University under Walter Piston, attended Aaron Copland's composition class at the Tanglewood Summer School, and subsequently taught for over a decade at the renowned Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He returned to South Africa in the 1970s and became composer in resident at the University of Pretoria.

"Grové was arguably the first composer to incorporate Black African elements into the very fabric of his music, venturing far beyond mere couleur locale to forge a unique creative synthesis of the indigenous and the "Western"." ^[2]

He is also a fine essayist, and his short fiction has received praise from no less a figure than André P. Brink. "His works include orchestral and chamber pieces in a linear contrapuntal style" ^[3]. In 2006, a biography of him written by Stephanus Muller and Chris Walton was published under the title A composer in Africa Essays on the life and work of Stefans Grové. His work, Glimpses. Five Miniatures for Piano (2004), has been chosen to be performed at the ISCM World Music Days in Hong Kong in November 2007 ^[4].