Walvis Bay’s Samuel wins SA music competition
Fourteen-year-old pianist Samuel Nel who hails from Walvis Bay, is this year’s winner of the prestigious Hubert van der Spuy music competition that took place in Stellenbosch last week.Over four days, 46 young musicians between the ages of 7 and 14 were judged in three rounds, with eight finalists going through to the final round on Friday night.
This was the fourth year Samuel participated in the competition and he went home with just under N$30 000. When he is not practicing piano, you will find him on the golf course, and he represented Namibia this year at the All-Africa golf championships.
Samuel loves performing in front of an audience and dreams of playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 in the future.
As part of his prizes Samuel won the Johanna van der Spuy Memorial Prize (N$15 000), a gold medal plus an invitation to perform as soloist with the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony in 2025. He may also be invited to the Hugo Lambrechts Concerto Festival in next year.
Samuel also won the prize for the best performance of a Baroque work in the first round (Allemande and Courante from the French Suite No 2 by JS Bach), the best performance of a Romantic work in the third round (Liebestraum No 3 in A-flat by Liszt), the Piano category prize, as well as the best performance of a South African composition.
Samuel’s younger sister, Juliette who plays the cello, was also one of the eight finalists. This 11-year-old won N$5 200, including the category prize as best strings player. Juliette loves to be outside, especially on her paddle board on the lagoon in Walvis Bay, where her dog, Tiger, often joins her on the board. She also enjoys playing the piano and her favourite sport is rhythmic gymnastics. Her dream is to become a concert cellist.
They come from a musical family and have two younger brothers who also play the piano.
At 14 Samuel still has enough time to decide about a future career, but what he does know is that there will always be a place for music and golf in his life!
The annual competition is organised by the Tygerberg branch of the South African Society of Music Teachers.
Professor Van der Spuy is as passionate and enthusiastic as ever about the instrumental competition for young musicians launched in 1989. At the time Van der Spuy was the head of the Music Department at the University of the Western Cape, where he inspired young people to become their very best. Since then the Competition has grown into the most prestigious of its kind in South Africa and Namibia.