PETA STEWART
Some people have it all, and 19-year-old cellist Luka Coetzee seems to be one of them. The good news is that she is coming back to South Africa to perform with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in its final concert in the Summer Festival on 25 January, 2024.
She’s an award-winning cellist, having won the 7th International Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, Finland; the 2022 Pablo Casals International Award, the 9th Johansen International Strings Competition, and many more, including top prizes in the 6th UNISA International Strings Competition, the 2019 Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal Competition, and the 2021 Shean Strings & Piano Competition. She was born in Canada to Afrikaans parents, brought up speaking vlot Afrikaans and English, and now she is living in Germany. She loves doing outreach and will work with Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra cellists.
Fantastic mentor
Luka’s parents and her two sisters emigrated before she was born, and although Calgary in Alberta became home, she got to know and love South Africa through visits to her extended family, including her grandmother who lives in Potchefstroom – who she will visit this trip of course. South Africa “is a special place and I always feel very much at home there,” she says.
She was just one when she was drawn to the sound of the cello – both her sisters are cellists, and her mother is a pianist. Luka shared that, “once I started performing more and more, I realised that I love sharing my love of music with audiences and my dream would be to become a professional musician.” Luka, at nine, with her sisters Mari and Ine, first played Requiem for Three Cellos and Piano by David Popper in South Africa, as a tribute to their recently passed grandfathers.
She says she has had several important musical influences, and that her current one is her teacher Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, “who has been a fantastic mentor to me the past year”. She is studying with him at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. She has also, naturally, been inspired by Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich her whole life, she says.
Luka auditioned for Alexander Gilman’s LGT Young Soloists in 2019 and was invited to tour with them to venues such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonie, the Tonhalle in Zürich, and also at the Woordfees Festival in Stellenbosch. “This was definitely a great start and it opened doors to performing more in Europe.”
She has performed as a soloist with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestre de Cannes and many more. Just before coming here Luka was in Denmark and Vienna touring with the Scandinavian Cello School. In November 2020, she was featured in a new arrangement of the Beethoven A major Cello Sonata for Cello and Strings on the NAXOS label, and she was acclaimed by Fanfare magazine for having “such joy, freshness, poise, clarity and naturalness that I am impatient for future recordings.”
For Luka, “It is always very special for me to perform and share music in South Africa. I look forward to collaborating with conductor Jonathan Lo, the wonderful musicians of the CPO, and sharing this fantastic piece of music, the Sinfonia Concertante by Prokofiev, with the audience as well as my friends and family who will be at the performance.
“The Prokofiev holds some special memories for me,” she says. “It was the first piece I played for Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and it’s the piece that really inspired me to change some important technical aspects in my playing. Working on this piece with David Geringas (my teacher’s teacher) was also a big privilege. I find the Prokofiev to be a very emotionally powerful piece and it highlights all the incredible things one can do on the cello. For me, the piece encompasses a whole journey of different fantasies and emotions. Even though this piece can often be perceived as very extroverted, I like to cherish the quieter moments where Prokofiev’s sensitivity really comes through in the music.”
She adds: “The joy of performing wonderful music and collaborating with others always motivates me. I also like to see how far I can push myself and how much I can improve and learn.” She also gets inspiration from other art forms, and the close relationships in her life.
“I would like to keep creating a platform for myself where I can share my love for music with as many people as possible. Through committing myself to studying the works of these fantastic composers, I want to share that music in my own personal way to the best of my abilities. After receiving the first prize at the 7th International Paulo Cello Competition, I’m grateful to see that my platform is growing and I am finding the means to bring a voice to my artistic vision, and to share it with the world.”
We believe you will do that Luka, and hope to see you back here regularly for many years to come!
Who: Cellist Luka Coetzee / Conductor Jonathan Lo
What: Summer Festival at the City Hall with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
When: Thursdays, January 25 at 19:30 for CP0; pre-concert talks at 18:45
Luka Coetzee tickets: Concert: Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695, Webtickets CPO. Dress rehearsal tickets at Quicket
WS
