(018) 299-1692 [email protected]

Date of appointment:
First time: 1 October 1970. Since then fairly regularly as locum tenens and accompanist.

Qualifications completed:
MMus, Post-Graduate Education Diploma, Church Organ Diploma.

Teaching responsibilities:
Currently, mainly doing accompaniment. Also teaching three piano students. In the past, as locum tenens, I taught anything as needed: History of Music, General Musical Knowledge, Harmony, Counterpoint, Practical Music, Organ.

Performance interests:
Playing piano.

Who are/were your professional mentors/inspiration?
Professors MC Roode, Attie van der Walt, GW Koornhof and Hans Babst.

Top 5 must-hear music:
This is difficult. Tone colour and harmony have big influences on me, therefore sometimes a single tone, chord or phrase can move me deeply. Overall, I love to listen to most music by the great composers from the Baroque to the Romantic period. To mention a few: Schubert’s Quintet, Violin Concerto’s (Beethoven, Max Bruch), Lieder by Schubert and Strauss.

Which personal music experiences are most memorable to you?
Westhuizen Duo concerts.

Top 5 must-read books:
1. Wild Swans: Three daughters of China by Jung Chang
2. The Agony and the Ecstasy (Michelangelo by Irving Stone
3. Lust for Life (Van Gogh) by Irving Stone
4. All the thrillers by Deon Meyer

Favourite quote(s):
“There is always a good reason for an opportunity to come your way. You must therefore consider it seriously and can only turn it down or ignore it if you have a very good reason to do so.”

Top 5 must-see movies:
1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. Forrest Gump
3. Schindler’s List
4. Amadeus
5. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Which television shows can you watch over and over again?
Inspector Morse

Favourite food:
All food, especially those prepared by someone else.

Favourite drink(s):
Good coffee, red wine.

How do you relax?
Watching TV, watching the sea.

Family (spouse / children):
Husband Koos (mathematician, semi-retired professor at the NWU)
5 children, 4 of them married
8 and 2/3 grandchildren

Which places would you still like to visit?
Because of my husband’s work and having two children living abroad, I was fortunate to have visited, and even lived in, quite a lot of countries. Europe, with Holland, Germany (especially the southern part), Switzerland and Austria, are still favourites.

Daleen Grobler

With my husband, Koos, in the gardens of the Peterhof Palace outside St Petersburg, Russia.

What is the ringtone on your cell phone?
The basic Nokia ringtone based on the harmony IV(II)–V–I!

What is your favourite moment of the day/week/year at the Conservatory?
Every positive, musically uplifting experience — in a rehearsal, lesson or concert.