Biography:

Peter James Leonard Klatzow (14 July 1945 – 29 December 2021) was a South African composer and pianist.

He was the director of the College of Music and was an emeritus professor in composition at the University of Cape Town.

Life and career

Klatzow’s earliest musical training (at about age five years) was at the Roman Catholic convent of Saint Imelda in Brakpan.^[2]

After completing his schooling at St. Martin’s School, Rosettenville, Johannesburg he briefly taught music and Afrikaans at the Waterford Kamhlaba School in Swaziland.^[3]

Klatzow moved to London in 1964 to study for a year at the Royal College of Music after being awarded a composition scholarship from the South African Music Rights Organisation composition scholarship which allowed him to go to the (RCM) in London to study. His professors included Gordon Jacob (orchestration), Kathleen Long (piano), and Bernard Stevens (composition).^[4] He won several prizes for composition while at the school. He later studied in Italy and then with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.^{[3][dead link]}

He returned to South Africa in 1966, where he worked for the SABC in Johannesburg as a music producer. In 1973 he was appointed to the South African College of Music in Cape Town where he later became professor in composition and director.

Klatzow died in Cape Town on 29 December 2021, at the age of 76, from COVID-19.^[5][6][7]

Works

Klatzow has composed choral works, including liturgical pieces,^[8] orchestral works, and ballet music.^[3]

Credits: