About
The Music
Today the Johnman’s home, Camido, functions as the Johnman Music Centre. Filled with the collected furniture, artworks, and books of the Johnmans, its high-ceilinged rooms provide an inspiring setting in which a variety of musical instruments are taught to all ages. Currently 11 teachers work both individually to grow their own practical studio classes in different instruments as well as combining pupils into ensembles for concerts.
Camido’ is a picturesque Victorian villa with an atmosphere of being loved and lived in, almost as if Dorothy and Charles had just stepped out on an errand and would be home any minute. Both were passionate about sharing knowledge. Charles as a lecturer in English often tutored students informally at home, individually or in groups; Dorothy taught Eurythmics to generations at Rhenish School and gave cello lessons at home. Their home was the meeting point for notable visiting musicians and venue for ensembles and music-making.
Our Teachers
Johnman Music Coordinator, Piano & Music Theory
Suzaan Lambrechts
Suzaan Lambrechts joined the Johnman School of Music in January 2021. She is passionate about piano, music theory and accompaniment. Her teaching methods focus on the overall musical development of her students whilst establishing a good foundation of technique from a young age.
Suzaan was born and educated in Stellenbosch. During her school years, she appeared on the UNISA Roll of Honour for Outstanding Achievement in piano and organ on numerous occasions. As a student of Zorada Temmingh she was the category winner for organ in the National Youth Music Festival in 1990. She received her B.Mus (Musicology) cum laude with Piano Performance up to her third year (under Melanie Horne) and was awarded the Chancellor’s Stipendium as best music student for the year group 1991-1994 at the University of Stellenbosch. During this time she also held a position as accompaniment assistant at the US (where she accompanied strings, vocals and various brass instruments) and she was the organist at Stellenbosch Central Church. Suzaan taught music for 2½ years at Stellenbosch High, during which time she completed her Hons.B.Mus (Music Education) cum laude. She was also awarded for her excellence as a teacher in music theory by UNISA during this time. Suzaan left Stellenbosch for London in 1998 where she worked for two years at St Marylebone’s School for Performing Arts. Here she taught A-level music and piano and accompanied instrumentalists and singers.
Suzaan’s career took an interesting turn whilst residing in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga from 2000-2020. As a mother of two young children she became aware of the need for the musical development of young children in town. She ended up setting a music business for preschool children. Over time this led to her conducting all 3 school choirs in town over a period of 10 years. These choirs won numerous awards at the Nelspruit Eisteddfod and at KykNet Sing in Harmonie. The Business Chamber of Lydenburg awarded her with a special individual award for her contribution to the cultural development of the town and for excellence in choir conducting.
Tel: 084 208 5500
Violin/ Viola
Maryke Lintvelt
Maryke Lintvelt studied at the University of Stellenbosch, where she qualified with a B.Mus. degree, majoring in Violin. She later resumed studies with Eric Rycroft and obtained a Licentiate in Performing from UNISA. She initially followed a career in teaching and worked at various institutions before joining the CAPAB orchestra in Cape Town as permanent and full-time player. During this time, she also taught at the Conservatoire of Music of the University of Stellenbosch where she was both founder member and concert master of the US String Orchestra, and the US Symphony Orchestra which toured and performed in Europe on three occasions between 1980 and 1990.
Maryke has been teaching violin and viola at the Johnman Music Centre since its inception in 1996. She also manages ‘String Along’, and performs with its various ensembles, providing music for corporate and private events.
Tel: 021 886 4099 / 082 577 1050
Piano
Mariaan Briggs
Mariaan Du Preez-Briggs joined the Johnman School in 2024. She teaches piano, recorder and music theory. She is also part time lecturer at the Education Department of the University of Stellenbosch where she is responsible for the module Curriculum Studies: Music for second year students.
Mariaan obtained the degrees B.Mus.Musicology), B.Mus. Hons. M.Mus. and D.Phil. (Music Science) from the University of Stellenbosch, and a teachers diploma from UNISA. She has thirty years of teaching experience, mostly music as a subject in high schools such as Rhenish Girls High, Groote Schuur High School and Duineveld High School. She has also taught piano, recorder and music theory to children and adults of all ages.
After the birth of her daughters, she interrupted het teaching career to develop and present music literacy programmes for toddlers and pre-schoolers. She is currently stille teaching at Laerskool Eikestad.
Music tuition should, according to Mariaan, always be seen as part of developing the character of the child. It must always be much more that preparing or coaching children for examinations. Learning must always take place through positive re-enforcement and encouragement. It must lead to the creation of attitudes and habits that benefits the child throughout his/her life. The goal of music tuition is enabling and encouraging the person, child or adult, to take part in music making and appreciation for the rest of his/her life.
Tel: +27 83 633 5918
Clarinet
Annamarie Bam
Annamarie Bam graduated with the degrees BMus and BMus (Hons) from the University of the Free State, South Africa, having taken lessons with Harold Strebel in Cape Town and Heinrich Armer in Bloemfontein. She was the overall winner of the ATKV Forte competition and won the overseas scholarship for Performer’s Licentiate from the Royal Schools of Music. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy in London under John Davies, Richard Addison and Antony Pay as well as attended masterclasses with Karl Leister in London and Guy Deplus in Nice. Her orchestral experience began at an early age in Bloemfontein where she joined various wind bands as well as the PACOFS Orchestra as an ad hoc member. She was principal clarinet of the S.A. National Youth Orchestra for four consecutive years. When she returned from London, she joined the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra as sub-principal clarinet and was later promoted to co-principal. In 1992 she took up a full-time teaching position at the Musicon in Bloemfontein and rejoined PACOFS. As an experienced chamber musician, Annamarie has played with ‘Taffanel Trio’, the ‘Poulenc Players’ sextet, in a duo with Elna van der Merwe, and in a trio with Elna and Sabina Mossolow, on recent appearances at the Woordfees (2016, 2018), and in Sasolburg with ‘Trio Classique’, an ensemble with Benjamin van Eeden (piano) and Karen Gaertner (viola).
Annamarie teaches privately at home and at the Johnman Centre in Stellenbosch and began a recorder school (the ‘Little Crickets’) for young children in 2005. She teaches a course in clarinet repertoire and teaching methods as a part-time lecturer at the Stellenbosch University Music Conservatorium. She lives in Somerset West with her husband and two daughters. Annamarie joined the Stellenbosch City Orchestra in 2015 as clarinet player. The orchestra gave its first performances at Oude Libertas (Stellenbosch), at Lourensford (Somerset West) and, recently, in the open-air concert hall Congratia, near Oudtshoorn.
Tel: 021 851 6136 / 083 2909 703
Saxophone
Renée (Belcher) van den Berg
Renée (Belcher) van den Berg completed the MMus Music Therapy degree (cum laude) through the University of Pretoria in 2012 and has worked as a music therapist and therapeutic music practitioner in a range of contexts (such as adult psychiatry, paediatric palliative care, dementia care and neurorehabilitation). She has also participated as a facilitator in regenerative creativity workshops for people working in the Arts. At present she teaches saxophone and clarinet in Stellenbosch and works at Stellenbosch University as part-time lecturer in the Wind Department.
Since completing her BA Hons in English Literature and the Licentiate in Saxophone in 2000 she has taught the saxophone, clarinet, and recorder, as well as subject music, jazz band and orchestra. She has been involved in numerous community music projects such as the Western Cape Music Education Project with Ronnie Samaai (Kuils River) and the Frank Pietersen Music Centre (Paarl) where she held the position of head of the Wind Department. She has also worked as an art journalist and jazz columnist for the Afrikaans newspaper, Die Burger, specialising in jazz and culture/place specific music (including music from Zimbabwe, Senegal, Japan, France, Spain, and New Zealand). As performer, she has shared the stage with musicians, composers, and writers such as Johannes Kerkorrel, Schalk Joubert, Laurinda Hofmeyr, Pierre-Henri Wicomb and Willemien Brümmer.
As a musician who has made music with people ranging from the ages of 6 months to 80 years, Renée has experienced the value of musicking as a tool to cultivate a sense of mastery, achievement, connection, and community, not to mention the great joy it may bring us. As a lifelong learner about music, health, and well-being she is looking forward to starting her PhD.
Renée brings a wealth of experience and insight as teacher, therapist, and journalist to the Johnman as saxophone teacher.
Tel: 082 455 4421
Singing / Voice
Suzanne Erasmus
Suzanne Erasmus’s career as qualified music teacher started off in 1986 at Eikestad Primary School. In 1987 she completed the Senior Musicianship and in 1988 the Teachers Licentiate in Singing (both from UNISA). In 1993 the Higher Licentiate in Performance at the US (Cum Laude) followed. Suzanne had the opportunity to be part of a 6-month Opera Workshop Programme, under the auspices of CAPAB and UCT, where she had master classes with Evelyn Dalberg, Wayne Long, Wendy Fine, Lawrence Folley and Angelo Gobbato. In 1988 she became a member of the CAPAB ad Hoc Opera Choir, and she was awarded a CAPAB Opera studio bursary in 1994 where opportunities for solo roles followed. As part of a CAPAB Operette tour, Suzanne was also casted as Orlofsky in The Fledermaus, and for CAPAB’s production of The Consul (Menotti) and Cosi fan tutti in the Johannesburg Civic Theatre she was respectively the understudy for the Sectretary and Dorabella. She frequently participated in solo and ensemble singing with Deon Irish (St Michaels Church, Observatory) and Shirley Gie (Tafelberg). Suzanne also performed as soloist for the Tygerberg Civic Choir (Edward Aicheson), and the Stellenbosch Camerata (Acama Fick). In 1999 she was Alto Soloist for both Hendrik Hofmeyr’s Requiem (Premiere) at the KKNK and at the Stellenbosch Festival and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in the Endler with Eric Rycroft as conductor. She adjudicated both at the Stellenbosch Eisteddfod (2002-2004) and at Helderberg (2009). She has done coaching for children soloists and ensembles for Artscape Opera productions as well as coached an ensemble for Kyk-Net Fiesta Awards in 2009. In 2013 she obtained her MMus in Performance (singing) at the US.
As from 2010 Suzanne has been teaching individual singing full time. She has joined the Johnman Music Centre in the beginning of 2018.
Tel: 073 1685 890
Kindermusik
Marietjie Botes
Marietjie het groot geword in ‘n huis vol klank, musiek, en dikwels sommer net musieklike geraas. As kind het sy die klavier bemeester en is selfs opgeneem in UNISA se Musicus Ere Rol vir Uitblinkers. Na skool het Marietjie se lewenspad haar in die regswêreld gedompel … en speel sy nou fluit in die hoop om soos die Rottevanger van Hamelin, ‘kinders te vang’ met haar liefde vir musiek via KINDERMUSIK!
Kindermusik is ‘n beweging-sing-dans-leer-en-musiek-maak program, geskep in Duitsland en vervolmaak in Amerika, wat daarop fokus om voorskoolse kinders die basies beginsels van musiek op ‘n speelse en prettige manier te leer. Klasse word in klein groepies van 4 – 6 kinders aangebied om elke kind die aandag te gee wat hy/sy verlang, terwyl mammas en/of pappas ook die stert van die klas bywoon om te deel in die pret en maak die Kindermusik Toepassing dit dan moontlik vir gesinne om ure se musiek pret by die huis te geniet.
Musiek is ook die beste vitamien vir enige mens, maar veral ‘n jong kind se ontwikkelende brein! Musiek verbeter geheue, bevorder die aanleer van taal deur ouditiewe ondderskeiding wat baie belangrik is vir taal ontwikkeling en brei selfs woordeskat uit, dit help met emosionele en sosiale ontwikkeling en uitdrukking, bevorder beide groot en fyn motoriese ontwikkeling en selfvertroue, ontwikkel neuro en brein plastisiteit, en bevorder selfs wiskundige en vermoeëns deur patroon herkenning, inskerping van aandag, geheue en konsentrasie, en verminder spanning.
Marietjie is ‘n geakkrediteerde Kindermusik onderwyser en sien uit daarna om musiek saam met jou te ontdek.
Tel: +27 83 548 0410
Guitarist, multi- instrumentalist and music teacher
Dirkie van Staden
Dirkie van Staden is a guitarist, multi- instrumentalist and music teacher. His main project is STRINGS ON FIRE Violin & Guitar Duo together with Internationally acclaimed violinist Johann Scheppel. As former member of the South African guitar duo CH2, and current member of STRINGS ON FIRE, WORLD@SOUTH and other instrumental Duos and groups, Dirkie has won several awards such as SAMA’s, GHOEMA’s and Sputh African Independent Artist Ward.
Dirkie performed on 3 CH2 Albums and collaborated with Chris Chameleon, Andre Schwartz, Nadine, Soweto String Quartet, International Guitar Sensation Marcin Patrzalek, Magdeleen Minnaar, Timothy Moloi, Internationally acclaimed blind adventure specialist Hein Wagner etc. Dirkie performed live on Expresso, SABC, JukeBox, Ontbytsake, RSG, Classic FM 1027, Fine Music Radio, GROOT FM, De KAT TV etc. Their composition “Green Eyed Panther” reached No 7 on the top 10 of a leading Australian radio station. Dirkie left CH2 in 2020 to focus on STRINGS ON FIRE and other projects.
Dirkie is ’n versatile instrumentalist. He plays and teaches on all the brass and some woodwind instruments but focuses on the guitar with a very distinctive and unique rhythmic playing style. Few guitarists can compare with his nuevo-flamenco pop and Spanish rasgueado technique. His rhythmic guitar mastery and sound became one of the cornerstones of all the duos and musical groups that he is part of. He is currently appointed at Stellenbosch High School as full-time music teacher. In his free time, he puts his pen to musical arrangement and composition. Apart from music, Dirkie is also a Photographer and DJ for Weddings, Corporate Events, and all functions.
Tel: +27 78 910 8696
