Seatavern

Valentina Vorster’s Violin Studio at El Shaddai Christian school will present their annual violin class concert. Twenty young violinists (aged 5 to 18) will present a versatile program of solo items, followed by an ensemble piece, when all participants will join forces together. Ms Vorster will also stay true to her studio’s tradition and will perform a violin piece for her students at the end of the program.

Piano accompaniments will be shared between Mrs Elizabeth Retief, Mrs Helga de la Guerre, and the young violinist and pianist Nina Cilliers.

Valentina Vorster Violin Studio is a private organization, established in 2018 at the El Shaddai Christian school in Durbanville, Cape Town. The studio welcomes children from early age(5yrs) to Grade 12 and beyond from the El Shaddai Christian school, as well as from outside the school. The main objective of the studio is to train the students in the fine craft of playing the violin and to equip them for stage performances, external music exams, Eisteddfods and national competitions. Mrs Vorster ensures a warm and inclusive environment where students are encouraged and challenged to grow as musicians and individuals, following and implementing the Biblical worldview in her classroom.

Valentina Vorster started with violin lessons at the age of 5. Her first experience in an orchestra dates from when she was only 8-years old, joining the vocal-instrumentalensemble ‘Zname na Mira” for performing and recording Bulgarian children songs. In gradefour she was accepted in the special Music School “Panayot Pipkov” in her hometownPleven, Bulgaria, where the main focus was various music disciplines and performancepractices. During her school career Valentina won several Bulgarian national competitionsfor solo violin and chamber music.Valentina completed her BMus in violin performance at the National Academy of Music inSofia, Bulgaria in 2000. As a member of two Bulgarian State Symphony orchestras, she hastoured extensively on opera tours throughout Europe.She joined the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and Baroque 2000 Orchestra in 2002, holding theposition of Co-Principal of the first violinists in the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra between2006 -2009, and appearing as a soloist with both orchestras on several occasions. Valentinawas a member of the Wouter String Quartet ,which was voted the Best Classical group in KZN for 2007. She has performed in many chamberconcerts with several of South Africa’s top musicians.After getting married in 2009, Valentina moved to Cape Town. She became afreelance musician and a regular ad hoc. violinist with the Cape Town PhilharmonicOrchestra as well as a member of Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (formerly named theCamerata Tinta Barocca)and the Stellenbosch University Camerata. As a chamber and solomusician, she has performed in many music festivals in South Africa. Valentina was part oftwo CD recordings with Tim Kliphuis Trio and Stellenbosch University Camerata for SonyMusic, as well as in other studio recordings for movie documentaries.She has worked closely with the late Cape Town based composer Anthony Costandius andpremiered several of his works. One of them “The Tragic tale of Torbalan ond Oude RodeRogen” for violin and double bass was dedicated to her and her colleague Roxane Steffenand premiered at Classics for All festival in Greyton in 2017.Valentina was a part-time violin teacher at the Beau Soleil Music Centre in 2010, and was theFirst violinist at the Beau Soleil String Quartet. She was also a full- time violin and violateacher, the conductor of the Senior String orchestra and the concertmaster of theSymphony orchestra at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parow (Cape Town) between2011 and 2108, with which she performed extensively and received numerous awards.Valentina is currently a free-lance musician, pursuing her orchestral, chamber music andsolo career. She has a private teaching studio and a student string orchestra - Da Cape’OStrings at El Shaddai Christian school in Durbanville.