Research
Even more graduates in this year’s harvest
In the June issue of our newsletter we reported on the dozen postgraduate students who completed their Master's and doctoral degrees earlier this year. At the graduation ceremonies of 30 July and 18 September, a further four postgraduate students received their...
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Finding a Voice in Every Language: Making Classical Singing More Accessible
by Prof Conroy Cupido The NWU School Music has embarked on an innovative multilingualism project aimed at making the language of classical singing training more accessible to students, teachers, and singing communities in South Africa and beyond. The project brings...
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Six-month artistic research residency concluded
Dr Jaco Meyer was selected to participate in the enuntiatio.praefatio.formulae artistic research residency programme, an international initiative that brings together artistic researchers working in music and sound-based practices from across the globe. Chaired by the...
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4th Annual NATS South Africa Chapter Conference
A sizeable delegation from the NWU School of Music attended this conference at Stellenbosch University from 22 to 24 July. Apart from his duties as President of the NATS South Africa Chapter, Prof Conroy Cupido also presented a paper, conducted Classical singing...
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Exploring experiences of gratitude during musicking in a community orchestra
This case study, published in Frontiers in Psychology in March 2026 by Prof Liesl van der Merwe and Dr Debra Joubert, explores the experiences of gratitude during musicking in a community orchestra. Drawing on interviews with 13 orchestra members aged 10 to 79 from...
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Beyond the Lab Bench
In the May issue of H-Factor, the newsletter of the Faculty of Humanities, Prof Janelize Morelli and Dr Yvonne-Marié Brand contributed an article titled "Beyond the lab bench: The case for sustainable industry partnerships in the Humanities". It is based on their...
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Green Songs as music education for sustainable development in an early childhood setting
This study by Prof Mignon van Vreden, published in March in Perspectives in Education, addresses the need to integrate education for sustainable development (ESD) into music teacher education using the Green Songs Project, an undergraduate service-learning project in...
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From youth song collections and trial song collections to the songbook of the church: A historical overview of the development of church hymns
In this article, published in Vir die Musiekleier / To the Director of Music in December 2025, Dr Jaco Meyer traces the development of the Liedboek van die Kerk (Songbook of the Church) from the resolution at the General Synod of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Church...
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Final doctoral graduate of 2025
In the death throes of last year, the DMus degree was conferred on Christelle Engelbrecht. She performed two concerts and submitted a thesis titled "The meaning of chamber music concerts for audience members: a comparative case study". In her thesis, Christelle found...
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Exploring five professional violinists’ flow experiences during solo and chamber music performances
This article by Dr Carli D'Alebout and Prof Liesl van der Merwe was published in Psychology of Music in November 2025. This interpretative phenomenological analysis looked at how five professional South African violinists experience “flow” — that special state where...
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More than a decade of research collaboration
Prof Liesl van der Merwe and Prof John Habron-James (Royal Northern College of Music, UK) first met at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference in Thessaloniki in 2012, where they discovered a shared passion for Dalcroze Eurhythmics,...
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Laban effort actions as a trio rehearsal strategy to create an ‘Ecology of Practice’: A collaborative autoethnography
This project, published recently in the Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, tells the story of how the members of Trio Joie de Vivre, Dr Catrien Wentink (piano), Mr André Oosthuizen (flute), and Prof Liesl van der Merwe (bassoon), explored new ways of rehearsing...
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