Eike Coetzee (pictured left), the young South African-born and musically educated Namibian viola player who is the soloist in this year’s Huberte Rupert Memorial Concert at the Endler Hall in Stellenbosch on Friday, 28 November 2025, is excited for two reasons, says PETA STEWART:
First of all, Eike will performing with the CPO again (the last time was in 2019 when he was the silver medallist in the National Youth Music Competition); and because he will be back in Cape Town for the first time since 2019 and will connect with his friends, family and nature which he loves. On the podium will be fellow South African Leon Bosch, who will also conduct The Hebrides overture by Mendelssohn and the Beethoven Symphony No. 7. The concert is generously sponsored by the Rupert Music Foundation.
Although Eike moved with his parents to Windhoek when young (he made his orchestral debut with the Namibian National Orchestra when he was 10), he remained connected with Cape Town.
“Jack de Wet laid the foundation of my playing,” he says. “Between the ages of 10 and 12 my family drove me from Windhoek to Cape Town almost every school holiday for lessons with him. For the next three years I flew to Cape Town almost every month. I will forever be grateful for his hard work and patience which has shaped my technique.”
Eike went to Germany in 2018 to study at the Musik Gymnasium Schloss Belvedere, then the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar, before continuing at the Hochschule in Frankfurt, where he now lives, learns and practises, when he is not travelling to chamber music projects and concerts across Germany, or visiting his girlfriend in Salzburg.
Eike’s mother, Gretel, is a South African soprano who met and married his Namibian father so the early influence is obvious. He studied violin from the age of seven until he was 16 when he “fell in love with the dark and earthy sound of the viola”. Since then he took a new course with the viola, of whom his main inspirations were musicians like Yuri Bashmet and Tabea Zimmermann, with whom he is currently studying. “It still feels quite surreal for me to have her as my mentor,” he says.
The heart of the orchestra
“I love the amount of chamber music and orchestral opportunities there are for violists, and I love being submerged in the harmony. The viola community is generally very kind and open, like a big family,” he says.
The viola, the butt of many musical jokes, is also considered to be the heart of the orchestra.
“Viola concertos are rarely mainstream,” he says, “but I believe listening to music like Hindemith’s Schwanendreher for the first time can speak to an audience in a manner which many well-known pieces can’t. I see it as presenting an unknown adventure, like a new movie. I hope to inspire a reaction of thoughts, reflection and awe that the harmonic world of Hindemith has not yet shown in South Africa yet. For me it is also essential as artist, to broaden the range of music the audience hears, and to promote the lesser known music of great composers.”
Eike comes to Cape Town after playing as an ad hoc in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra’s symphony concert and will stay on a couple of days on the south coast with his parents, before going back with them to Windhoek for another week.
What’s the long term goal? Winning an orchestral position and continuing to play chamber music, concertos, and teaching, while maintaining the connection to South Africa and Namibia; and starting a family.
What: Eike Coetzee with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra/ Leon Bosch conductor
Where and when: Endler Concert Hall, Stellenbosch on 28 November 2025
Tickets: Artscape Dial A Seat 021 421 7695 and Webtickets
WS
