Story of cello
The cello, which is central to her life and has taken her on many journeys of discovery and connected her with many people and places, is not just any cello – it is an instrument with a special story of its own, which sparked her love and passion for cello and provided a lifelong source of inspiration.
“Born into a musical family in the picturesque town of Stellenbosch in the Cape Province of South Africa, I started cello at a young age with a British cellist, Julian Hart, at the University of Cape Town. Although I was Afrikaans speaking and Hart English, we had a perfect understanding and special connection through music, which transcended language barriers. When Julian died unexpectedly, I was devastated and vowed never to play the cello again. But, through a twist of fate or destiny Julian’s parents approached my father at the funeral and told him that after reading Julian’s diary inscriptions about me, they had decided to gift his cello to me. Ever since the age of ten I have played on this French cello dating from the early 1900s. It embodies a journey of its own—from Europe to Africa to New Zealand and from the historical to the contemporary”.