Staff
Master Teacher in NATS Intern Programme
Reported by Prof Conroy Cupido Last month, I had the privilege of travelling to South Carolina, USA, where I was invited to serve as a Master Teacher in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Intern Programme. The programme brings together experienced...
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Doctorates galore!
It was a rare and special occasion on Friday 5 June when five staff members of the School of Music received their doctoral degrees at the same graduation ceremony. Dr Thomas Erlank, DMus — "Exploring how purposefully selected emotion regulation strategies could...
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Another successful concert tour to Costa Rica & Colombia
Following their first visit to Costa Rica and Colombia last year, Prof Tinus Botha and Mr Thomas Erlank returned for a second visit in April, combining performance, teaching, and academic engagement. During this visit, they collaborated with leading institutions,...
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Eastern and Southern Cape concert tour by violin and piano duo
Prof Piet Koornhof (violin) and Ms Jana Mathee (piano) have successfully completed a concert tour in the Eastern and Southern Cape from 12–15 April. They performed a duo-recital programme, titled Fantasia, with works by living Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, French...
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Birthday buddies
The Birthday Paradox is a well-known problem in probability theory that asks: How large does a group of random people need to be in order for two of them to share the same birthday? The problem is considered a paradox because the answer is counterintuitively and...
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Accolades for multimedia collaborations
Over the past year or so, Dr Jaco Meyer participated in two multidisciplinary art projects that were featured in galleries and at arts festivals across the country. Corpus Naturæ is a video installation in collaboration with visual artists Jaco van Schalkwyk and...
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NWU-KMH teaching exchange visit
Reported by Dr Yvonne-Marié Brand, Prof Liesl van der Merwe & Ms Rineke Viljoen (also see NWU-KMH academic exchange programme continues) Our teaching exchange at the end of November last year, hosted by the Royal College of Music in Stockholm (KMH), was a rich and...
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Regreso a Costa Rica*
Reported by Prof Tinus Botha Following my concert tour with Mr Thomas Erlank last year to Costa Rica and Colombia, I returned to the beautiful campus of the Universidad de Costa Rica in San José from 24–31 January 2026 for the 10th Encuentro de Pianistas Costa...
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Dr Antoinette Olivier travels to the Netherlands & Sweden
Reported by Dr Antoinette Olivier During September and October, I undertook an academic visit to the Netherlands and Sweden, where I had the privilege of presenting classical singing masterclasses and engaging in professional knowledge exchange at an international...
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Awards for teaching and creative outputs
At the Faculty of Humanities' annual awards evening on 22 October, Dr Catrien Wentink [above, second from right] received a Faculty Teaching Award and Prof Conroy Cupido [above, right] received a Creative Output Award recognising his musical direction and conducting...
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Knowing Me, Knowing You — Prof Tinus Botha
Prof Tinus Botha and his colleague, Mr Thomas Erlank, have presented a series of concerts this year throughout South Africa featuring Schubert’s Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin. Their collaboration will continue next year with Schumann’s Eichendorff...
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Knowing Me, Knowing You — Dr Catrien Wentink
Dr Catrien Wentink started her term as BMus programme manager on 1 September, and she is very excited to engage more with the students than just as a lecturer in class. She also looks forward to the possibilities for updating and improving the BMus programme in an...
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