Europe here she comes! Mia Pistorius, a third-year music student at Rhodes University, has been accepted to attend international concert workshops in Bulgaria and Germany.
Europe here she comes! Mia Pistorius, a third-year music student at Rhodes University, has been accepted to attend international concert workshops in Bulgaria and Germany.
She joins a limited number of students chosen from around the world to be part of lectures in the Varna International Piano Master Class and the Goslar International Concert Working Weeks.
“I am excited and scared at the same time, Europe’s music culture is different and intimidating,” she says. The 22-year-old Pretorian enrolled for piano while in primary school and has been playing ever since.
Initially she came to Rhodes University to study Journalism, but could not escape the pianist gene in her. At the end of first year she switched to study music full time.
“I was doing music as an additional course and my music lecturer, Catherine Foxcroft, inspired me to take it up full time,” said Pistorius. “She is an amazing pianist and teacher.”
Besides studying towards a music degree, Pistorius is studying towards a Bachelor’s degree in Afrikaans and Dutch literature and plays the violin as a hobby.
Of her coping mechanism while juggling two degrees she said, “It takes a lot of hard work and discipline.” She will perform at Rhodes Beethoven Room as part of her fundraising concert to help cover the costs of this opportunity.
“I will perform a variety of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Ravel, Scriabin and Gubaidulina,” enthused Pistorius.
“The Grahamstown audience know me as a contemporary player, but for this concert, I will simply play classical music.” Don’t miss the concert at Beethoven Room on Saturday at 7.30pm.
