Opera Chief Hijangua

Eslon Hindundu was born and raised in Windhoek (Namibia) and he studied at the College of the Arts Namibia and Odeion School of music, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. Hindundu started singing in various school choirs but his talent was recognized by Fanie Dorlfing when he auditioned for COTA Youth Choir Namibia in 2010. He was part of the choir that won ATKV Animato Choir competition Pretoria, South Africa in 2010 and World Choir Games in 2012 and 2014 where the choir got three Gold and one Silver.

Hindundu was a soloist for COTA Youth Choir from the year 2011 up until 2015 under the leadership of Fanie Dorlfing. He started taking singing lessons at the College of the Arts, Namibia with Hermien Coetzee in 2015.

Hindundu started composing/arranging choral music for various School choirs, church choirs and brass band around the country in 2015. His composition has been performed all over the world and at international event (e.g. World Choir Games 2018). The Namibian National Symphony Orchestra premiered two of his composition in February 2019 during the NNSO Valentine’s concert. Ever since the premier, his composition has been performed by visiting orchestras from Germany and the Festival Orchestra of MusikWoche and Immling Opera Festival (Germany). NNSO String Quartet performed one of his composition during the 250 celebration of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven in Omaruru (December 2020). Hindundu got the first Namibian composition/arrangement Published by Wilton’s Music from America. He composed the First Namibian Opera and had the world premiere at the National Theatre of Namibia on 09&10 September 2022, making it a historic event.

Hindundu was the conductor of Ella Du Plessis High School choir 2013; the choir took part in ATKV Applause competition and managed to get a Silver. In 2015 Massive Community Choir and St.John A.F.M Church Choir Namibia took part in the ATKV Animato 2015 and got Silver under his leadership.  ST. John A.F.M Church Choir took part in the National choral Competition of Namibia 2015 which was organized by the Ministry of Education Arts and Culture and got the first place in the Omaheke Region and qualified to participant in the Finals. They also took part in the Old Mutual National Choir Competition 2016 and 2017 which was held in Windhoek, Namibia and came second overall under Hindundu leadership.

Hindundu got to conduct and perform with well establish choirs and Wind bands (Orchestra) in Namibia as well as South Africa, he was a member of the Bloemfontein Cathedral Singers South Africa under the leadership of Lance Phillip. He was the Choir Master at Saint Michael’s School for Girls Bloemfontein 2018. Eslon Hindundu has performed international at United Nation Economic Commission for Africa Conferences for Ministers of Finance and has participated in the College of the Arts (COTA) Concerto Festival 2015 under the leadership of Hermien Coetzee and performed with Namibian National Symphony Orchestra (German Classics meets Namibia Concert 2017 and Valentine’s Concert 2019). Hindundu was part of the World Youth Choir 2018 which was held in China. He was an assistant Conductor at Musikwoche Swakopmund Namibia Festival (2018 & 2019) and Immling Opera Festival Germany (as an assistance Conductor) and conducted the choir and orchestra (Making him the first conductor in Namibia to conduct an international Orchestra).

Hindundu conducted and premiered his first Oratorio on 27&28 November 2020 with members of the Namibian National Symphony Orchestra (NNSO) and his own choir Vox Vitae Singers. He was also the Musical Director and conducted the Namibian National Symphony Orchestra during the world premiere of his Opera (Chief Hijangua Opera), the First Namibian Opera.

Eslon Hindundu is the founder and the conductor of Vox Vitae Musica Namibia.

Cantus Domus was founded 25 years ago by Lena Schoenfelder. This great, at the time almost audacious idea of forming a choir at the Haus der Jugend in Berlin-Zehlendorf was inspiring and forward-looking. On its way into the present, the choir – from the beginning under the artistic direction of Ralf Sochaczewsky – has enriched and inspired many people. Over the years, musical encounters and collaborations have taken the choir to many cities in Germany and to Belarus, Poland, Nicaragua, England, Norway, France, Georgia and the Netherlands. In the process, Cantus Domus has been accompanied by a great cultural curiosity, diverse forms of musical expression and impressive concert formats.

The Corona pandemic and its accompanying restrictions have dramatically affected the musical and cultural landscape. Like countless choirs in this country and around the world, Cantus Domus has had to cancel planned concerts and concert tours. Due to the restrictions, the choir has unfolded new formats of choral, rehearsal and recording work and thus also allowed its entire artistic creative process to take place in new ways. In a short period of time, unique digital cooperation projects have been carried out with artists such as Shara Nova, Gaby Moreno, the Georgian women’s choir Tutarchela, Nicholas Müller, Grainne Hunt and Mohannad Nasser.

Cantus Domus opens up new approaches to choral music for its audiences with immersive productions and innovative collaborations. As a classical concert choir, it often seeks ways beyond common performance routines, for example by performing in unusual concert venues (J. S. Bach: “B Minor Mass”, Kraftwerk Berlin, 2015) or by involving the audience in its concerts (J. S. Bach: “St Matthew Passion”, Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie, 2018). One of the choir’s trademarks is the format of the so called Concept Concerts, which was developed by Paul Liebrecht in 2008 and has been constantly refined. Here Cantus Domus regularly stages elaborately choreographed and musically demanding performances in unusual spaces (Arthur Honegger: “Le Roi David” in the Vollgutlager of the Alte Kindl Brewery in cooperation with choreographer Christoph Winkler, 2017; “Synthesis” for choir, synthesiser and DJ in the Kindl Centre for Contemporary Art and Culture, 2015 or “Singingpool” in the Stadtbad Steglitz, 2008).

In the last four years before the Corona pandemic, since the premiere of a choral opera staged and excellently reviewed by Cantus Domus (Frank Schwemmer: “Macbeth”, 2016, directed by C. Rindfleisch, libretto: U. Küchler/J. Fraune), Cantus Domus performed  in five countries and cooperated with around 40 orchestras, partner choirs and bands in around 50 performances and concerts. Inspiring international encounters have recently taken place with Wood River from New York, Vox Humana (Oslo), Fahmi Alqhai and the Accademia del Piacere (from Spain, Syria and elsewhere) as well as with the Georgian choirs Shavnabada and Tutarchela. In 2018, Cantus Domus and Bang on a Can All-Stars (New York) gave the German premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize for Music-winning oratorio Anthracite Fields in Berlin.

Cantus Domus has worked with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) and Vladimir Jurowski (2019), the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Antonello Manacorda (2018), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi (2018), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (2013), the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Jonathan Nott (2012), and the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Simon Halsey (2007), among others.

In addition to its numerous concerts with large ensembles, Cantus Domus also performs with various chamber ensembles in smaller projects. In the process, the choir increasingly moves into the border areas between classical and indie/pop, for example with performances at festivals such as People, Kaltern Pop and Haldern Pop, as well as collaborations with Bon Iver, Charlotte Greve, Damien Rice, Helga Davis, Kjartan Sveinsson, Kurt Wagner, Lisa Hannigan, Loney Dear, Mads Brauer, Shara Nova, Stargaze, The Slow Show and Tocotronic, among others.