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While furthering his studies in Italy during 10 years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector, Hendrik Hofmeyr won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher. He also received the annual Nederburg Prize for Opera for this work subsequent to its performance at the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1988. In the same year, he obtained first prize in an international competition in Italy with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. He returned to South Africa in 1992, and in 1997 won two major international composition competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition of Belgium (with “Raptus” for violin and orchestra) and the first edition of the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens (with “Byzantium” for high voice and orchestra). His “Incantesimo” for solo flute was selected to represent South Africa at the ISCM World Music Days in Croatia in 2005.