Blue Heritage Plaque Award

The unveiling of the Blue Heritage Plaque awarded to Beau Soleil Music Centre by the Simon van der Stel Foundation for the architectural significance of the building, took place at the end-of-term ensembles concert on Sat 24 Nov. Present at the unveiling were Sigi Howes from the Centre for Conservation Education and co-ordinator for the  Blue Plaque Schools Project, Ian Pretorius (Chairperson Simon van der Stel Heritage Foundation), Keith Martin (Adjudicating committee member) and Redewan Larney (Chief Education Specialist of the WCED). The wording on the Plaque is: “Awarded to Beau Soleil Music Centre for this architecturally significant neo-Gothic mansion, built in 1877 as a private residence”. More information on the history of the Beau Soleil House can be found on our website using this link.

Braai Concert 2018

Our fourth term concert was held on 24 November with great success. As usual, this was a casual concert held outside under the trees and all our large ensembles performed. For some students this was their first outing in their new ensembles. Fortunately the wind was not too severe so our audience got a full audio experience equally from the string and wind ensembles. Boerie rolls and other snacks were available to keep hunger at bay. At this concert, our various progress prizes, sponsored by Paul Bothner Music, were handed out. These winners are listed on our “Achievements” page. This concert was also host to a special event, the unveiling of our Blue Heritage Plaque Award. After seeing the various ensembles performing increasingly complex repertoire, the Senior Band closed the programme with an energetic performance that included a wind band version of the well-known Capriccio Espagnol by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Musathon 2018

Our 11th edition of the annual Musathon was held on 20 October 2018. This is both a fundraising event and an opportunity for all Beau Soleil students to perform in a relaxed and informal environment. This is an ideal environment for some students performing solos for the first time in public. We had three venues operating simultaneously from 10am to 3pm, giving audience members a great variety of options for entertainment. An assortment of food and drink were on hand with the tea garden, burger/boerie stand chip-on-a-stick and ice cream truck, and a jumping castle and face painting kept the kids (and some teachers) occupied in between performances.

Owl Club Performance

The Beau Soleil String Quartet performed to great acclaim at the Owl Club at Kelvin Grove on Tuesday 18 September. The members of the quartet are Jordan Brooks (violin 1), Bevan Snyders (violin 2), Kristin Leith (viola) and Isaac van der Merwe (cello).

In attendance at the event was the cartoonist Tony Grogan, who made these delightful sketches of the quartet and their coach, Marina Louw. The feedback from the Owl Club was overwhelmingly positive, with the quartet’s performance hailed as being ‘arguably one of the best performances ever at the Owls’.