The second new staff member to join the ranks at the School of Music this year is Dr Jaco Meyer, Senior Lecturer in Composition and Musicology.

It is a bit of a homecoming for Dr Meyer as he is also an alumnus of NWU — he completed all his music degrees up to doctoral level here, as well as a Master’s degree in Positive Psychology. In addition, he has been contributing to MASARA focus area as a research associate the past few years. He says that it is nice to be back for two reasons: first, the environment is familiar to him, however, he is now here in a new capacity; and second, he is grateful to be able to do research and compose (in addition to teaching) as an integral part of his job.

Speaking of composing, he comes to the School of Music with a number of active projects:

• an interdisciplinary project featuring sound, art, poetry and VR (virtual reality) experiences to which he contributes and that will be performed in April at the KKNK;
• the musical setting of visual artist Willem Boshoff’s ‘concrete poems’, which is taking quite a lot of his time because it requires the creation of new kinds of graphic music scores; and
• a composition that is part of a series of works on concentration camps.

For the future, he plans a series of songs, based on the poems of Hertzog Prize winners.

As a student at the Conservatory, his best memories are the wonderful opportunities he had to learn and grow, especially attending the SASRIM Conference in Stellenbosch, doing field work with Dr Alvin Petersen in Venda, and presenting at the ICTM Conference in Newfoundland, Canada (his first time overseas), all as an undergraduate student. Most important, he met his future wife at a lunch hour concert at the Conservatory!

Dr Meyer and his wife are now the proud parents of a two-year old girl and when he is not working, she demands all his attention. The list of movies and series that they would like to watch is just getting longer …

What made him happy this week is that he not only taught his students, but he could also learn something from them. They offer new and fresh perspectives and ideas, relating it to their own lives and points of view, that he might not have considered. This prompts him to explore it further.