During April and May 2014 the Charl du Plessis Trio travels to China for the 5th consecutive year where they will give master classes and perform with some young musicians from Shanghai. The American School Shanghai in Pudong have been hosting the trio for the past five years and has made it possible for...

In the European summer of 2014 unique master classes will be presented in the picturesque village of Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps. Enthusiasts of piano music of a more improvisatory nature can use the sublime surrounding and tranquil atmosphere to start a journey on the path of self expressive music making and improvisation. Hosted...

A recent Facebook post of mine created a response in form of questions, so I have decided to write about it. I made a Facebook status update mentioning that I was going for a piano lesson while I was in Cape Town for a series of concerts. Two major responses followed: the first group...

Tuesday 15 October 2013 Do you recall Jacques Loussier? He is a French pianist and composer. He is well known for his jazz interpretations in trio formation of many of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works, such as the Goldberg Variations. I still have the original Philips cassette of Play Bach that Loussier recorded in 1959....

Just after I finished school at Grey College in Bloemfontein, South Africa I moved to Pretoria in 1996 to study piano with master piano teacher Joseph Stanford at the University of Pretoria. At the time I did not know a single soul in Gauteng and acted purely on recommendation and the reputation of this...

A jazz pianist performing a Beethoven concerto might sound unheard of, but I am used to these reactions from the public by now. That is what fuels my musical adventures around the world: diversity and the ability to switch between genres and styles. Combining Beethoven’s fifth piano concerto and his fifth symphony in one...

On 8 November Charl du Plessis performs at the 38th Fränkische Musiktage in the Historisches Hofgut Hörstein, Alzenau – East of Frankfurt. The programme celebrates the music of the German composer Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) and compares the influence of Jazz music on his compositional style. Very few pianists are able to perform music across...

It was my honour to be the youngest person ever in Africa to be named a Steinway Artist in 2010. It was my honour to be the youngest person ever in Africa to be named a Steinway Artist in 2010. This life-long title has been bestowed on some of the most well known pianists...