Zoë Coetzee

Violinist Zoë Coetzee, who joined the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in January 2025 after playing as an ad violinist for two years, holds a BMus Hons and MMus in Violin Performance, awarded Cum Laude. The degrees were awarded in 2022 and 2025 by the University of Stellenbosch (SU). She has been a student of the CPO’s guest concertmaster and SU’s Head of the Department of Music Suzanne Martens since 2014.

 

During her school career, she competed in Eisteddfoddau and national competitions in both violin and piano. In 2022, Zoë and her string quartet were runners-up in the  open category of the Stellenbosch National Ensemble Competition; she was also a finalist in the 2023 Mabel Quick Overseas Bursary Competition.

 

Zoë participated in and led numerous ensembles. In 2016, she played in the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and she participated in the annual Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival from 2014 until 2022. She was the concertmaster of the University of Stellenbosch String Ensemble in 2021 and of the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra in 202 and participates in the Stellenbosch University Camerata orchestra. She is also an ad hoc violist for the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra. In August 2024, Zoë was selected as one of the three representatives of South Africa at the Festival of the World Youth Orchestras in Moscow, where she performed under the baton of Yuri Bashmet.

 

In August of 2022, Zoë attended the MusicAlp summer course in Tignes, France, and a year later the Musikkurswochen in Arosa, Switzerland,  where  she received daily lessons from Priya Mitchell. She also had the opportunity to receive public master classes from Madeline Adkins, Alissa Margulis, Daniel Rowland, Mark Bouchkov, and Jack Liebeck.