Carpe Musicam

Meet our Choir

Chippy Walker

Jaconett Brink

Ilse Stockenstrom

Astrid Tworeck

Ilse Stockenstrom

2nd Soprano/Alto

We live in Cola Beach, Sedgefield. We moved from Durbanville in Cape Town in 2017 and have since retired.

I love any form of art, whether sketching, painting or drawing. I also love interior decorating and these are the hobbies that keep me busy. Both me and my husband (Eric) love music – he plays Brass Instruments and now also wants to join the orchestra!

I attended the past Carpe Musicam! performance in Sedgefield (to see my friend and neighbour – Liesel De Villers) who has been a member of Carpe Musicam! for some time. She encouraged me to join, as she knew I was absolutely fascinated and blown away by the performance given that evening and even though it has been many years since being part of a choir, this just seemed like a fantastic and exhilarating opportunity to sing with an orchestra!!

The upcoming ‘Around the world In 80 minutes’ will therefore be my first performance with Carpe Musicam! and I could not be more excited! Truly a dream come true.

Jaconett Brink

Alto

I was raised in a very musical family in Pretoria. My mom and my brother play the guitar and my late Dad could not only play many instruments, but played them very well too.

I started with piano lessons when I was 12 years old and continued up until UNISA Grade 6, after which I had to stop playing for a while as a result of a horseriding accident. That was when I decided to focus on singing. But I was very shy (I still am) and decided to take some singing lessons when I was 17.

Through the following years I studied and qualified as a veterinary nurse. I continued to play the piano and learnt to play the guitar. I sang in the church choir, but also in groups and duo’s at weddings and various events. I have also done some vocal and backing vocal recordings. The thing I love the most about singing is harmonising, and of course the way music makes us feel!

I also enjoy writing songs. I once won a songwriting competition on a local radio station and won an amazing holiday with my whole family to Mozambique. In 2012 I was one of the finalists in the ATKV Crescendo song writing competition and was privileged to attend a songwriting workshop with Lize Beekman, Christa Steyn, Karen Zoid, David Kramer and others.

When my husband and I relocated to George from Pretoria in 2019, I had to leave all my music friends and family behind and I felt a little lost… Until Norman and Elsabé walked into my workplace one day and for some reason, they started telling me about their orchestra and choir! I couldn’t wait to join! I feel like it was meant to be, for me to be part of the Carpe Musicam! family, where we all share our love for music. Thank you Norman and Elsabé!

Chippy Walker

choir

I have loved music all my life and grew up with a classical background, having learned to play the piano at a young age, played a bass trombone in our brass band at boarding school and later played the drums in a pop band. I also sang in the choir at boarding school and when I was in my late 30’s early 40’s, I joined the Methodist Church choir at Northfield Methodist Church in Benoni. After some 20 odd years our choir eventually had to dissolve due to the lack of a choir leader but I continued to participate in Songs of Praise and later Sing for Joy in Benoni. This all came to an end in 2019 with the advent of Covid and lock down.

I was introduced to CM! by our good friend Sue Fawcett, and with much encouragement from her, my wife and my sister Jen joined this wonderful choir this year. Not having sung since 2019 I really am a little rusty but am really enjoying being part of this very good choir and looking very forward to the challenge of the upcoming concerts in July. I consider myself an opera freak and a huge supporter of The Cape Town Opera Company.

A big thank you to all my fellow choristers for accepting me into this fantastic group and I will do my best not to let you down!
Yours in beautiful music,

Astrid Tworeck

Soprano

“Growing up in Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, South West Africa, Namibia in the 60’s and 70’s, music was not a part of any school curriculum. The only way to learn the love of music was to have parents or find someone else’s parents who were musical and wanted to share their passion.

My fondest memories include the weekly music gatherings at one of our friends’ house where we were taught to play xylophone, recorder, marimba, percussion instruments of many sorts and then also to read music.

Singing was done around the camp fire or at Christmas and other occasions and I loved it.

We, parents and the 4 kids, owned a piano and some recorders and learning to play the piano and the recorder at home is how I initially learned to read music. It was all plain and simple and in German, so I never learned all the complicated music terms in English. Only much later did I come across all that when the love of singing and playing piano was instilled in my daughter and she took lessons at school and practiced at home.

There was a very prim teacher in primary school who took a fancy to me for my music skills and made me her music pet. I started to learn the violin and get proper singing tuition privately. Learning to play the violin didn’t last very long, however, the singing tuition lasted a little longer & to this day her warm-ups still ring in my ears. I think she was an opera singer in her youth.

When we were in our teens we found one piano teacher in Walvis Bay. She was a tiny, gnarly fingered elderly lady who used a ruler to smack our fingers when we made mistakes. Needless to say, she robbed the passion I could have had for playing piano but at least I learned to read music a little better.

In high school there was NOTHING; except that during the December holidays a music week was held in Swakopmund (known as MUSIKWOCHE) where music groups coming from all corners of the country would gather for 10 days or so and prepare to compete. I was part of a group for some years, probably playing my recorder, and we always did quite well (proudly). This popular music week is still on the annual calendar for Swakopmund.

My dream, after school, was aspiring to become a musician or an artist.

Neither happened. My tuition growing up had been insufficient and I ventured out into the world doing something else. I suppose I am now a master at my art of helping folk with their physical disabilities with massage and alignment techniques.

With the first salary of my first real job I bought myself a symphonic gong – that’s what they told me in the music shop that it was. Over the years I bought all sorts of things that make sound. I even made some with clay.

During covid my friend and I attended one of the CM! performances. I enjoyed it and kept thinking, “I don’t want to be sitting on this side just listening, I want to play, I want to sing.” My courage lagged for about a month and then, after emailing CM!, I was invited to join the gang. It was during a time where we were not allowed to work and I had a lot of time, so I joined in both, the orchestra (playing percussion) and the choir.

Then, once I got too busy again, I had to weigh up singing vs orchestra. It was a difficult choice to make but singing won. My voice is definitely not what it once was (a case of what you don’t use you lose) but with some practice it gets stronger and it is very enjoyable. It makes me happy to be a part of my CM! family, the weekly practice gives me a healthy high and the performances make me feel a little bit higher.

The plan is to join the orchestra again ‘one day’. This time I am tempted to learn to play an instrument, maybe a cello, or an oboe, or a clarinet. It’s not quite clear yet. Meanwhile I love and enjoy singing.