Zoë Beyers, assistant leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, starts the concert year for the Grahamstown Music Society with a violin recital on Tuesday 22 February, accompanied by Francois du Toit.
Zoë Beyers, assistant leader of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, starts the concert year for the Grahamstown Music Society with a violin recital on Tuesday 22 February, accompanied by Francois du Toit.
An experienced young soloist who was a Yehudi Menuhin scholar at the Royal College of Music, Zoe was born in Stellenbosch and began her music studies at the age of six.
Du Toit, now an associate professor in the College of Music at the University of Cape Town, is acknowledged as one of South Africa’s finest pianists, chamber musicians and music educators.
They have chosen a vivid programme of Romantic and later music, from Romanian Folkdances by Béla Bartók to Beethoven’s extensive Sonata No.10 in G, the great Sonata in G minor by Debussy, Prokofiev’s Sinq Mélodies, and Pablo de Sarasate’s Concert Fantasy on Carmen.
The recital will be held in St Andrew’s Drill Hall, off Worcester Street, starting at 7.30pm. Concertgoers are encouraged to come early to enrol as members of the Society at R400 for the year (R350 for pensioners, R300 for students) which in effect gives two free concerts of the seven for the year.
Otherwise, tickets at R80 for adults (R60 pensioners, R40 tertiary students) are available at the door. Schoolgoers in uniform are welcome for free.
Zoë Beyers (violin) was born in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and began violin lessons at the age of six with Noel Travers. Since her debut, aged 11, with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, she has performed throughout South Africa and Britain with many distinguished conductors, including Vladimir Verbitsky, Bernard Gueller and Saulius Sondeckis.
In 2002, Zoë performed with the St Petersburg Philharmonic in the opening concert of the St Petersburg Musical Olympus Festival. In this prestigious concert, she received critical acclaim for the première performance of Qilaatersorneq, by the Queen Elisabeth Award-winning composer Søren Nils Eichberg, as well as Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole.
Zoë has given recitals in the Linbury Theatre, the Pitville Pump Room in Cheltenham, and, as a member of the Emanuel Ensemble, the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room. She is the first violinist of the Solaris Quartet, and performs with the Fibonacci Sequence, the Soloists of the London Mozart Players and the Scottish Ensemble.
Zoë has recently performed as a soloist with the Oxford Symphony Orchestra, the Hounslow Symphony Orchestra and the Cape Town Concert Orchestra. She gave a solo performance at the ENO Coliseum for the opening of the Cheltenham Music Festival, and recitals in the 2006 Cheltenham Festival as part of the Festival Academy Players.
She was recently been appointed Sub-Principal 1st Violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She was awarded an Associated Board International Scholarship for her undergraduate degree at the Royal College of Music, and received her BMus with First Class Honours in 2005.
She also won the Tagore Gold Medal, and awards from the RCM, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Worshipful Company of Musicians and the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund for her postgraduate studies.
Zoë is a Yehudi Menuhin scholar at the RCM, currently working towards an MMus and studying with Gabrielle Lester and Gordan Nikolitch.
François du Toit is acknowledged as one of South Africa’s finest pianists, chamber musicians and music educators. Receiving early musical training from Merryl Preston and diplomas up to Fellowship level from London’s Trinity College of Music, he completed an Honours degree at the University of Cape Town under the distinguished pianist and teacher, Laura Searle, and then furthered his studies in Hanover, Germany.
During his period of study abroad with the renowned pedagogue Berndt Goetzke, he distinguished himself in several important international piano competitions, taking top prizes in the 1991 Hannover Music Competition, the 1992 Rotterdam and 1993 Marsala Internationals, and the 1994 International Maria Callas Competition in Athens.
He has appeared as an acclaimed concerto soloist with all the orchestras in South Africa since the age of 15, and while still a student in 1988 was selected with Steven De Groote to perform with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra on tour in the Republic of China.
Since his days on the Music Faculty at the University of Potchefstroom he has been a member of The Potch Trio, which performed in Moscow and St Petersburg in 1999, and now also appears with Franklin Larey as the Ixopo Piano Duo.
He is a sought-after partner of visiting international artists in recital for chamber music societies throughout South Africa, and a highly respected adjudicator at the various national music competitions. An Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Cape Town, where he is also Head of Chamber Music, du Toit was invited to give masterclasses and a recital last November at the University of West Michigan, where he also acted as an external examiner.
