Michael Blake: Biography
Born: 31 October 1951, Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation: Composer, teacher, musicologist
Also known as: Advocate for contemporary South African music
Michael Blake was born in Cape Town in 1951. His early musical experiences came through piano study and an exposure to both European classical traditions and South Africa’s diverse local idioms. He left South Africa in the 1970s, during the apartheid years, and pursued advanced studies abroad, first in London and later in Germany. These years in exile brought him into contact with leading figures of European avant-garde music while reinforcing his interest in the sounds and traditions of southern Africa.
Blake’s compositions reflect an ongoing dialogue between international modernist techniques and African musical practices. He frequently employed repetition, asymmetrical rhythm, and timbral exploration, while drawing on sources such as Xhosa bow music and township jazz structures. His work extended across orchestral, chamber, solo, and vocal forms, and he consistently sought to place South African ideas within global contexts.
Alongside composing, Blake played a central role as teacher and organizer. He held academic appointments at institutions including Rhodes University, where he taught composition and promoted contemporary music studies. He founded the New Music Indaba festival in Grahamstown (Makhanda) in 2000, which became a platform for new South African and international works. Through such initiatives, he helped establish networks for composers who were often marginal within the country’s mainstream institutions.
His discography includes recordings such as Michael Blake: Piano Music (2002) and African Journal (2006), which illustrate his interest in combining European piano traditions with African rhythmic vocabularies. His later works continued to reflect on questions of identity, history, and belonging in post-apartheid South Africa.
Michael Blake’s career represents a sustained effort to expand the reach of contemporary music in South Africa while situating it within international dialogues. His contributions as a composer, teacher, and organizer made him a central figure in shaping the country’s new music landscape in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Selected Works
- Michael Blake: Piano Music (2002)
- African Journal (2006)
- Various orchestral and chamber works performed at New Music Indaba and international festivals
Key Associations
- Rhodes University — teacher and mentor to composers
- New Music Indaba — founder and curator of contemporary music festival
- European new music circles — contacts established during his years in exile