Grethe Nöthling

Piano & Subject Music 

Grethe Nöthling holds a Doctorate of Music from the University of Iowa and a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, in the United States. After her musical debut at age 7, performing as soloist with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, she won several national music competitions, awards and bursaries including the Sanlam Music Competition (1994), ABSA National Music Competition (Piano Category: 1998), ATKV Prelude Competition (2000), Hennie Joubert National Piano Competition (2000), Lionel Bowman Beethoven Competition (2001) and UNISA Overseas Scholarship for Teachers (2003).

She has been soloist with major national orchestras as a young pianist including the Cape Town Philharmonic, Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. More recently she made her debut as soloist with the Free State Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

Her teachers included Ella Fourie, Joseph Stanford, Daniel Shapiro, Paul Schenly and Uriel Tsachor.

She is also an avid chamber musician and performed regularly with faculty and guest artists at the University of Iowa. Since her return to South Africa in 2015 she has been part of numerous chamber ensembles performing at universities and music festivals across the country, including the Grahamstown Arts Festival, Vrystaat Kunstefees, Klein Karoo Klassique, Hermanus FynArts Festival and Music in the Mountains. Her contribution to the performance at the Vrystaat Kunstefees won ‘best overall artists’ in 2017. In 2018 she performed South African compositions written for clarinet and piano at the Clarinet Festival in Ostende, Belgium, with clarinettist Danrè Strydom.

Grethe has served as adjudicator at numerous national and provincial music competitions and eisteddfodau, including the SAMRO National Hubert van der Spuy Music Competition, Johann Vos Music Competition, Pieter Kooij Music Competition and the Stellenbosch Mabel Quick Competition. During March of 2017, she was invited as part of a selected alumni to present masterclasses and give a solo recital at the University of Iowa’s Piano Alumni Festival. She has also been part of the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium in 2018 presenting a lecture on ‘The Pianist’s Approach’.

She has lectured in piano and piano method at the Odeion School of Music, University of the Free State, and at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town. In 2022 she has been appointed as piano educator and accompanist at Beau Soleil Music Centre in Cape Town.