VIOLA DIALOGUES

Violinists Petrus Coetzee, Azra Isaac, Annien Shaw and Matthew Stead, cellist Rosamund Roth and pianist Isaac van der Merwe

The programme presents a carefully curated afternoon of delectable dialogues that will showcase the ‘great mediator’ of the bowed strings family — the viola — and its many diverse functions as a chamber music instrument with works by Kodaly, Harley, Enescu, Borodin, Elgar and Turina.

BIOGRAPHIES

Annien Shaw

Dr Annien Shaw is a soloist, chamber musician, baroque violinist and teacher based in Cape Town.  She holds a PhD in Performance Practice from the University of Cape Town, a PGDip and FRSM in solo performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester UK, a Masters in Chamber Music from the University of Stellenbosch, and a Honours in Psychology from UNISA. As a chamber musician she led the award-winning Stellenbosch University String Quartet on two international tours as well as being a founding member of the renowned Juliet String Quartet. She has been actively involved in the developing Baroque scene in Cape Town as a member of the Cape Consort and a Guest Concert Master and soloist of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTB). Annien is the founding member of The Flat Mountain Project, she teaches at St Cyprians School and lectures at Stellenbosch University in violin, musicology, repertoire studies, teaching methodology, chamber music, and orchestral studies as subjects.

Azra Isaacs

Cape Town-born viola player Azra Isaacs received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees under the direction of Assoc Prof Farida Bacharova at UCT’s South African College of Music. Both degrees were received with distinction, and she had individual distinctions in the subjects of Viola and Chamber Music. During her undergraduate degree, Azra was placed on the Dean’s Merit List each year, and in her 3rd and 4th years, received the Alfred Libochowitz Prize for Strings. She was also one of the first participants in the Schock Foundation Prize for Chamber Music, having been a finalist in the 2008 Inaugural competition. Azra was a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in the Artscape Youth Music Festival of 2006. She became a full-time member of this orchestra in 2009, and was appointed Associate Principal viola for the orchestra in 2017.

Isaac van der Merwe

Pianist Isaac van der Merwe, winner of several competitions including the 2022 Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition, began his musical journey learning percussion with Frank Mallows at Beau Soleil Music Centre in 2012. In 2014, when he was 11, he began learning piano with Tessa de Groote, and in 2015 he took up cello with Maya Maille at Beau Soleil, playing in the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a number of years.

In 2021, at the age of 17, Isaac started piano lessons with Albie van Schalkwyk, won first prize in the Senior Piano Category of the Johann Vos, and was overall winner in the Pieter Kooij competition. In 2022 he embarked on a BMus at UCT under François du Toit and won the Hennie Joubert as well as the Atterbury National Piano Competition. He also participated in the final round of the National Youth Music Competition. He appeared as a soloist with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in the finals of the 5th SA Conductors' Competition and performed the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2 with the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra in Johannesburg in June 2022. In July 2023 he placed second overall in the 7th UNISA National Piano Competition, playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Boico in the final round, and in August that year he won the open category of the Johann Vos Piano Competition.

Isaac, now 21, regularly plays concerts in Cape Town, as well as participating in events such as the Stellenbosch Piano Symposium and Chamber Music Festivals. He has played orchestral piano in an ad hoc capacity with CPO on a number of occasions, and in 2024 he made his debut as a soloist with CPO, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor. Outside of performance, Isaac’s interests include composition and classic literature.

Matthew Stead

Matthew Campbell-Stead works full-time as the co-principal 2nd Violin in the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Having begun his CPO career in 2019, he has since worked regularly in close proximity to brilliant artists and conductors, and in diverse musical contexts such as symphony, ballet, opera, pop, experimental contemporary, and commercial film music.

He also works as a chamber musician, primarily as second violinist in the Juliet String Quartet, with whom he performs new and contemporary South African music in addition to music from the traditional string quartet repertoire. Matthew studied violin with Suzanne Martens at Stellenbosch University, from which he graduated in 2019 with a Master’s degree cum laude. During his student years, he was also a member of the Stellenbosch University Camerata, a professional ensemble that collaborated with both local and international artists.

Petrus Coetzee

Petrus Coetzee is employed full-time as principal violist of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) since 2018, making his debut as soloist with the CPO in April 2021. Petrus obtained an M.Mus. in Chamber Music with Violin at Stellenbosch University. Thereafter he spent 7 years abroad, studying a Masters Diploma in Viola at the Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium, Austria, followed by an M.Mus. in Viola and String Quartet at the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien Hanover, Germany. While studying in Hanover, he completed a two-year orchestral internship at the NDR Radiophilharmonie, and thereafter was employed as tutti violist at the Oldenburgisches Staatsteater for two years. Besides his current employment at the CPO, Petrus lectures viola part-time at both the Stellenbosch University Conservatory and the South African College of Music, Cape Town. He is a member of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra and performs regularly as soloist and chamber musician in several ensembles at concert series and festivals in South Africa.

Rosamund Roth

Rosamund Roth was born in Pretoria and started her musical education at an early age. She attended Pro Arte High School for the Arts and went on to obtain her BMus from the University of Stellenbosch, where she studied under Magdalena Roux. There she also completed honours degrees in both Latin and English Literature. During her studies she played with professional orchestras like the CPO and the KZNPO on a regular basis as an ad hoc player. Her studies next took her to Zürich, Switzerland where she studied in the class of Prof. Roel Dieltiens. She obtained a Masters in Music Pedagogy, as well as a Masters in Transdisciplinary Studies from the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

She was very active as a teacher in St. Gallen, Appenzell, and Zurich, and as a performer all around Switzerland. She was co-principal cellist with the Zürcher Kammerphilharmonie for six years. During the Covid pandemic, she started playing the viola da gamba after discovering a great passion for early music, and took private lessons with Paolo Pandolfo in Basel. In 2022 she returned to Cape Town to play full time with the CPO, and to focus on a career as a performer on the cello, the baroque cello, and the viola da gamba.