South African flautist and composer Wouter Kellerman speaks to The Citizen at his home in Johannesburg, 17 February 2025, about has third Grammy. Picture:Nigel Sibanda/ The Citizen
Venerated American rapper André 3000 once said what made him take up the flute was that there was a sense of humanness and immediacy to the wind instrument.
“It’s the closest thing to singing. You’re hearing a human’s wind,” the rapper told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show.
The flute has been described as a warm and distinctive instrument. South Africa’s most celebrated flautist, Wouter Kellerman, shares similar characteristics with the instrument. He is equally warm and precise in his assertiveness.
Kellerman welcomes The Citizen to his home in Johannesburg on a rainy Monday. “Ja, this is like a normal day in the UK,” he said of the weather.
He is renowned, yet modest, and his home reflects this, too. It has a bright, airy interiors filled with natural light, with some of his accolades, including Grammy Awards, placed elegantly in places where you might even miss them when walking into the living room.
While André 3000 has been playing the flute for just under a decade, Kellerman picked up the instrument when he was 10 years old. He is 63 now.
Despite being the South African with the most Grammy Awards, Kellerman said his family treats him the same.
“When my mom heard we were nominated she was like ‘oh, I didn’t like the music so much but I’m glad someone likes it’. That’s my family. They’re very honest with me.”
After completing high school he received a bursary from Anglo American to study engineering, although studying music was his first choice. He got his engineering degree at what was then known as Rand Afrikaans University and did an honours degree at the University of Pretoria.
He then worked at Anglo American’s coal mines in Witbank (now eMalahleni) in Mpumalanga in the 1980s. “I didn’t last very long. I wasn’t very happy; you’re spending most of your time underground. I came back to Joburg and started my engineering software business.”
Kellerman has two adult children who now live in Australia. Before fully taking up a career in music, he raised them after he was granted custody following a divorce.
“I tried to become a full-time musician but I couldn’t tour, I didn’t want to travel away from my kids,” he said.
But Kellerman nurtured his passion for making music, even though he wasn’t a full-time musician, by playing his flute every day and getting lessons from some of the best. “I did allow myself three weeks a year to go overseas to study with the best teachers.”
In 2005, after his children completed their schooling, he decided to fully immerse himself in music. “I remember sitting at that kitchen table with my kids and they said: ‘Dad, what would you like to achieve?’. The first thing that came to mind was a Grammy nomination.”
Nine years after that, Kellerman won his first Grammy Award for Winds of Samsara in 2014. The album not only topped the US Billboard charts but also claimed the No 1 spot on the Zone Music Reporter Top 100 International Radio Airplay chart.
Building on this success, his next album, Love Language, earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album and debuted at No 1 on the Billboard World Music chart. In 2021, his album Pangaea was nominated for Best New Age Album.
He won his second Grammy for Bayethe, a collaboration with Nomcebo Zikode and Zakes Bantwini. His most recent Grammy is for Triveni, which triumphed in the Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album category this month.
“The first one was a huge breakthrough. My most recent one is my last-born, so it’s my heart,” he said.
ALSO READ: Grammy glory for Wouter Kellerman and ‘Triveni’
It has been 20 years since his kids gave him the blessing to pursue his desires and in that time, Kellerman has become a world-renowned musician through all his travels. Some of his memorable performances are in iconic venues like Carnegie Hall (three sold-out concerts) and appearances in cities from Berlin to Shanghai.
Kellerman is also a foodie and has learnt lessons through his trips in the past two decades. “When I’m in the US, I miss vegetables. If you go to the average place around the corner, you don’t get decent food,” he said.
“Australia is the opposite of the US. You just walk into any arbitrary little corner coffee shop and they’ll have like amazing organic fresh vegetables.”
He enjoys dessert so much that he has some every day.
NOW READ: ‘A source of immense pride for SA’: Gayton McKenzie on flautist Wouter Kellerman’s third Grammy win
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