Influenza 1918

South African composer Philip Miller has created a project to assist funding singers and musicians who are currently unable to earn money during the COVID 19 Lockdown. #musoreliefSA

This is a new arrangement of an old song, 'Influenza(1918)' which the celebrated South African choral composer Reuben T. Caluza wrote in response to the Spanish Flu epidemic in our country. Philip located the original 1920 recording online and re-arranged the song for vocals and brass. He worked with a group of talented vocalists and musicians who recorded themselves in their own homes, supplying voice notes for him to assemble the whole song together. The song is available via Spotify and Soundcloud as well as on Facebook and Instagram, donations via BUSQR.

To donate to this cause, scan the QR code displayed at the end of this video or visit: busqr.co.za/streamer/philip-miller to donate directly.

All donations are greatly appreciated.

Kaunas Bienalé – There and Not There

July 2017

Sound works installed in letterboxes in the Jewish Ghetto of Kaunas and outside buildings once inhabited by Jewish residents. The soundscape comprises of spoken word recitations of Yiddish aphorisms, combined with an old folk song “ A Yiddish Kind”.

Kaboom

A multimedia installation. KABOOM! tells the story of the nearly two million African porters and carriers used by the British, French, and Germans during World War I in Africa. Set to a rousing, orchestral score co-composed by Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi’s, the monumental, three-channel work is projected onto a scale model of the stage.