Cellist wins overall prize at national music competition
DUNKELD - Alexander Whitehead, a 13-year-old cellist from Dunkeld won the overall gold medal at the Samro Hubert van der Spuy National Music Competition for fledgling instrumentalists in Cape Town.
After nationwide auditions, only 65 young candidates were selected to compete in the prestigious music competition, eventually narrowing the competition to eight finalists all of whom, with the exception of Whitehead, were pianists.
The competition, now in its 26th year is intended to harness musical talent from around the country offering young music learners an opportunity to distinguish themselves nationally, within their own instrumental category and across composition style periods.
Whitehead not only walked away with the overall prize – the Johanna van der Spuy award – he was also the category winner for strings, and was awarded best performance for a Baroque piece in the first round, and best performance of a South African composition.
Among his winning pieces were Scherso by Allan Stephenson and Allemande from Cello Suite no. 2 in D minor by Bach.
Inspired by his uncle who is a professional cellist, Whitehead has played the cello since the age of four. The Grade 8 pupil of St John’s college spends roughly an hour to an hour and a half a day practising.
His mother Veronica said she wanted him to play an instrument he could commit to, and believed in the effectiveness of the Suzuki method, a specialised technique developed for teaching music to children based on language acquisition theories.
The young boy is a student of Suzuki cello teacher Takao Mizushima who teaches via skype from Australia. He also enjoys playing sports in his spare time, especially soccer.
Details: www.samrohubertvanderspuy.wordpress.com
See Alex Whitehead preform at Samro competition:
