Peter Klatzow was born in Springs, South Africa, in 1945. In 1964 he attended the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied composition with Bernard Stevens, piano with Kathleen Long, and orchestration with Gordon Jacob. In that year he won several of the College composition prizes as well as the Royal Philharmonic prize for composition, which was open to any Commonwealth composer under 30. He spent the following years in Italy and Paris, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger.

Since returning to South Africa in 1966, he has worked at the SABC in Johannesburg as a music producer, and in 1973 was appointed to the University of Cape Town, where he was Director of the College of Music and Professor in Composition. In 1986 he was elected to the rank of Fellow of the University of Cape Town for “having performed original distinguished academic work of such quality as to merit special recognition.” He was awarded his DMus for published work in Composition in 1999, and the Cape Tercentenary Foundation’s Molteno Gold medal for lifetime achievement in Music in 2002.

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph was a young virtuoso pianist who studied with Goldie Zaidel, Philip Levy, Adolph Hallis, and later with John Lill at the Royal College of Music in London. Her B.Mus and M.Mus degrees were both awarded with distinction and in 1979, under Prof Stefans Grové, she became the first woman in South Africa to obtain a Doctorate in Music Composition (1979). She later received an honorary Doctorate in Education (2008).

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Zaidel-Rudolph has also made a tremendous contribution to Jewish music in Johannesburg as pianist, musical director, composer and arranger for the hugely successful show Celebration, which was premiered in Johannesburg in (1994). Subsequently, since 2000, Celebration has been performed to great acclaim in the USA, Canada, London and Australia.

In 2012, she was awarded an NRF Research Grant in the Music Division at Wits University for 6 years for creative and conventional research. She acquired the title of Professor Emeritus at Wits University in 2014.