Our Teachers
Ryan Van Schalkwyk
Guitar
Ryan has a lot of experience in the music industry. Having 10 years of teaching experience and having played plenty of shows; sharing stages with artists such as The Parlotones and Dozi, Ryan is a very capable teacher with a good knowledge of contemporary music when it comes to the guitar.
Ryan is also the founder of Grace Note Music School with a great vision to present opportunities to students and teachers alike.
Lorraine Havemann
Vocal, Piano
Lorraine Havemann is a soprano who made her mark internationally and then chose to help others through the route of teaching.
She has obtained an LRSM (piano), UTLM (dist), UPLM (singing) and NHD (opera).
She believes in technical excellence as a result of hard work.
She also insists that the student be exposed to a live audience and for this reason presents a number of concerts annually for this very purpose.
Chrissie-Jane Stassen
Piano, Violin, Music Theory
Chrissie-Jane studied piano performance with well-known teachers, like Ella Fourie (South Africa), Robin Harrison, Stephane Lemelin and Marek Jablonski (Canada). She finished her MMus degree at the University of Alberta, Canada in Music Composition under Howard Bashaw. She has performed with well-known artists like Dewald von Solms, Trevor Nasser and Michelle Veenemans. She made a CD-recording of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Michelle Veenemans and the Klassika Vocal Ensemble in 2016. She is an experienced teacher and accompanist.
Estevan Kühn
Guitar, Drums
Chanie Jonker
Piano, Music Theory
Estevan Kühn is a fourth year BMUS (Bachelor of Music) student, studying under Mageshen Naidoo at the
University of Pretoria.
Like many guitarists he started off playing the blues. While playing in various blues bands and
ensembles led by his guitar teacher at the time, Illimar Neitz, he experimented
with playing multiple genres from folk to metal and most things in-between.
He is now a Jazz major, but is also able to teach classical, rock, blues, metal and other
styles of guitar and drums. Estevan is able to teach beginners to advanced players with the added benefit of how to read and write using musical notation as well.
Chanie Jonker is a classically trained pianist from Pretoria. She completed her BMus degree (piano performance) cum laude under guidance of the renowned Professor Joseph Stanford at the University of Pretoria. She further obtained the UTLM (UNISA), UPLM (UNISA) and LRSM (ABRSM UK) diplomas in music.
After her classical studies, she ventured into a wide variety of genres performing jazz, contemporary and others. Since 2014 she is the accompanist for singer Jannie du Toit with whom she tours locally and abroad. She has also shared the stage with other prominent artists such as Andre Schwartz, Nadia Beukes, Willem Botha, Jannie Moolman, Leah, Lee Scott and many more. Apart from accompaniment, Chanie regularly brings new shows to the stage (classical and other), composed music for a childrens’ TV series and she was the Musical Director for Ge Sing: Hoor my lied in 2019, a production which showed at arenas across the country. Chanie is also a passionate teacher and owner of her private piano studio in Constantia park, Pretoria. Her students achieve excellent results in practical and theory examinations, as well as national competitions such as the Atterbury Piano Competition.
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Jesse Jardim
Flute
Jesse is a 3rd year BMus student at the University of Pretoria. His music education started at the age of 7 where he started with just the flute. As the years went by, he learned piano as well as guitar. He played in his high school orchestra for 5 years and also won the SA championships 2 years in a row. He is currently part of the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra Company, University of Pretoria Symphonic Wind band, the Community Philharmonic Orchestra and Principle Flute in the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra.
He has been playing the flute for 13 years, developing a great love for it and also attained a Trinity Guildhall Level 8 certificate in his matric year for flute.
Jesse believes in teaching the basics of music theory to help his students understand what they are playing. His dream is to play in several famous international orchestras and develop his musicianship along the way.
Carmen Potgieter
Piano, Violin
Carmen Potgieter gives classical and contemporary vocal lessons and piano lessons to
students of various ages and levels. She is currently a 4th year BMus (Bachelors of Music)
student at the University of Pretoria, specializing in Classical Vocal Performance and Opera
Studies under Professor Hanli Stapela. She is one of UP’s top academic achievers in the
Music faculty, having acquired the Golden Key Award for outstanding performance. From
the age of 5, she’s had classical and contemporary singing lessons and playing the piano as
well. She completed Grade 8 singing exam with Trinity. She won several awards for classical
and contemporary singing in various eisteddfods and competitions. She also has experience
with choral singing: has sung in her school choir from grade 1- grade 12, and coached
several high schools at their choir camps. She often sings lead vocals at churches in Pretoria.
She believes that her students should enjoy making music. She helps them understand the
theory, technique and even science behind music, and above all, to find the beauty in
expressing oneself through music.
Jeanlie Minnie
Vocal, Piano, Theory
Jeanlie Minnie is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She performs under the stage name ‘Jaid River’ and recently released her debut album ‘Verlanger’.
She completed her Grade 8 theory and vocals exams, as well as her Grade 3 Piano exams during her school years and then went on to study Jazz Vocals with Piano as a 2nd instrument at Tshwane University of Technology for three years.
She has been teaching since 2017 and continues to do so throughout the week while doing shows over weekends solo and with her band.
Danielle Ross
Vocals, Piano
Danielle has her honours degree in music with singing being her first instrument and piano being her second.
She has a great passion for music and she love spreading it to others!
Danielle has been teaching for 2 years and loves working with all ages.
music to her is a language that unites all of us.
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Gerhard Olivier
Piano
Gerhard Olivier is a classical pianist, who shares a great passion for performing. Gerhard has been playing the piano for 14 years, and starting taking it seriously in high school.
Grey High School has an exceptional music department, and during these years Gerhard completed his Grade 8 Trinity examination for classical piano; and went on to receive the winners medal for the SASMT Music Competition (High School category) in 2017.
He studied at the University of Pretoria for four years, receiving lessons from brilliant pianists like Dr Charl du Plessis and Megan-Geoffrey Prins. During these years Gerhard competed in the Philip H Moore Music Competition, as well as the National Atterbury Piano Competition; where he advanced to the semi-finals.
Currently Gerhard is focused on participating in piano competitions and performances again, as well campaigning for the success of his band - where he plays bass guitar and keys.
Marthie Viljoen
Piano
Marthie started music at age 9 with piano; recorder from 10 years old.
She studied B. Mus (Ed) at the University of Stellenbosch.
Through the years, Marthie added classical guitar, saxophone and church organ and completed her Unisa Music Theory Grade 8.
Marthie has now been teaching private for 31 years. She accompanied violin, sax, flute and singing students for formal examinations at Trinity, Royal School of Music and Unisa on piano. Marthie have accompanied school and adult choirs on piano.
As you may deduct, music is her life.