Performance
Rexleigh Bunyard has been a musical performer all her life. She started the piano by ear at the age of 5, assisted by her father’s whistling of tunes for her to play, and was on stage at 7 in a duet performance with a child violinist. At 12 she performed Mozart’s Concerto K414 with the Cape Performing Arts Board orchestra in their youth festival for young performers. These podcast recordings of her interview with Richard Cock of People Of Note in 2016, give a taste of her performing career from child to adult soloist, and some of her compositions.
Rexleigh’s qualifications include a B.Mus (Cum Laude, 1980) an M.Mus in piano performance (1983) from University of Cape Town, a Diplộme Supérieur d’Exécution from the prestigious École Normale in Paris, France (1985) and a D.Mus (Composition) with Honorary Academic Colours, from University of Pretoria (2010).
In 1988, Rexleigh moved to Johannesburg where she freelanced in various capacities in the light music industry, including in partnership with Louis van Rensburg and as accompanist to cabaret artiste Elzabe Zietsman.
Dr. Rexleigh Bunyard made history in South Africa in 2016 when her oratorio, Requiem for the Living, received its world première in August, with performances in the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg and the ZK Matthews Hall at Unisa.
This composition has given rise to an NGO with the same name, (RFTL) in aid of AIDS orphans and people who have suffered devastating loss, which enjoys the patronage of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Justice Edwin Cameron of the Constitutional Court, and SA Diva Mimi Coertse. Requiem for the Living has its own website at reqliving.org.
in 2013 she met SA actress Gaynor Young, about whom she has written the chamber opera Lost in a Bluebell Wood. Excerpts of this work received a concert performance conducted by Rexleigh in Pretoria in 2014.
The Rainbow’s Child therainbowschild.com, her mini-ballet Namaste, excerpts from Lost in a Bluebell Wood and other compositions/conducting/pianistic performances by Rexleigh can be viewed on this website, at entheoscreations.com, on Youtube and/or several FB pages which she manages.