As the years of my career seem to fly by – each one quicker than the one before – I realise the importance of a spontaneous or pre-determined series of coincidences resulting in a theme for that year. 2017 will definitely be known as the year of the choirs. For some bizarre reason the...

The Charl du Plessis Trio won a prestigious SAMA Award as Best Classical/Instrumental album for their Baroqueswing vol. II on 26 May. This national music initiative is the top award in music recording and honours musicians in all genres & styles. The Baroqueswing vol. II CD features music by Bach, Vivaldi, Gluck and Handel...

Steinway & Sons launched a new piano called Spirio about a year ago. This is the world’s finest high resolution player piano. A masterpiece of artistry and engineering can be experienced in your own home. Spirio enables you to enjoy performances captured by great pianists — played with such nuance, power and passion that...

When I first started this blog I was seated on a jet from Cape Town to George having just become the first person in the history of the world to perform on a grand piano on Table Mountain, on International Piano Day. What an extraordinary moment it was! I was most worried about the...

The Charl du Plessis Trio departs on a nationwide tour introducing their new Baroqueswing Vol. II CD by Swiss record label Claves in March 2017. The tour will include Mossel Bay, Knysna, Prince Albert, Bloemfontein, Hermanus, Witrivier, Pretoria, amongst others. This is the first release on the Claves label, and was recorded live in...

On 29 March Charl du Plessis will become the first pianist in the world to perform on Table Mountain. This coincides with International Piano Day and is presented by Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos. Never before has a grand piano been on Table Mountain and this day will be celebrated with performances by leading South African...

Yesterday I returned from a very successful concert tour in China and on the flight from Hong Kong to Johannesburg I took a look at my calendar and realised the moment of truth has arrived: In February I turn 40 and for quite some time the well-known saying ‘life begins at 40’ has been...

The combination of two polar opposite feelings never fails to amaze me at the end of each calendar year: on the one hand it feels like the last twelve months whizzed by in two seconds flat and on the other hand it feels like this has been the longest year in history. However you...

Here is a review (in Afrikaans) that appeared in BEELD on 26 September 2016 by Paul Boekkooi   Dink aan die Swingle Sing­ers, die Jacques Loussier Trio en die Raymond Guiot-kwintet: Heerlike jazz-improvisasies, soms teen ’n virtuose sneltreintempo wat weliswaar Bach en sy maters hul pruike tydelik laat verloor het, maar uiteindelik ’n stewige...

“Do people even buy CDs anymore?” I heard a friend ask yesterday. This question came ahead of the launch concert for my first international recording contract with Claves Records of Switzerland. My trio had the fun experience of playing some music from our new Baroqueswing Vol. II album for a packed house at Pretoria’s...