Bronwen Leith

Piano & Subject Music

Bronwen Leith (nee Trollip), completed her schooling at the Johannesburg High School for Art, Ballet, Drama and Music. She went on to do a BMusEd degree (Organ, Piano, Oboe, History), doing the first two years at Wits University and completing her degree at The South African College of Music (UCT) in 1989. While at university, Bronwen studied the instrumental majors under Henk Temmingh, John Coulter and Barry Smith (Organ), Molly Warr (Piano), and Bryn Shaw and Gerrit Bon (Oboe). After teaching for a year at Fairbairn High School, she accepted a post at St. Cyprian’s School. She held this position for 7 years, after which she dedicated the next few years to being a full time mother to her two young daughters.

Bronwen has always had a passion for choral singing and from 2003 until 2006 she returned to St. Cyprian’s School in the position of Choir Director of the High School Choir. In 2006 she accompanied the choir on a tour to Germany and Austria. Bronwen dedicated the subsequent years to home-schooling her daughters, while keeping her musical interests active by directing the Herschel Girls’ School Preparatory School Choir, teaching the piano at Beau Soleil Music Centre and privately at home, and leading a choral group for home-schooled children. At the start of 2020 Bronwen founded the Cape Town Children’s Choir which was launched at Beau Soleil.

Bronwen became a full-time staff member at Beau Soleil at the start of 2022 where her roles include teaching the piano, administering the Piano Department, and conducting the Cape Town Children’s Choir. In her piano teaching, she aims to keep lessons fun, relaxed, and inspiring, tailoring them to each student’s individual needs and capabilities. She works with her students to develop sound technique and good reading skills, but with a flexible approach, developing a good foundation in the Classical style, but also incorporating other genres, rote learning and improvisation.