Magdalena Roux
Magdalena Roux obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in the performing arts with Cello as major from the University of Pretoria in 1975. During her student years (1972-1975) she won various scholarships for academic as well as artistic achievements and she was also the solo cellist of the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra. The most important of these scholarships was the Leopold Premyslav Scholarship for string players in 1974 and the UNISA Scholarship for overseas studies, after obtaining their Teachers' Licentiate Certificate. During 1976 she was a member of the then SABC Orchestra in Johannesburg. In 1977 she moved to Europe to study at the Mozarteum Music School, Salzburg, Austria, under Prof Heidi Litschauer, obtaining the First Diploma (1978) and the Second or Concert Diploma for Cello with distinction (1980). In that year she was one of two students chosen to perform a concerto with orchestra in Salzburg, and took a special prize for high artistic achievement from the Austrian Ministry for Science and Culture. In 1981 she continued her studies on a Swiss scholarship under Prof Guy Fallot at the Conservatoire de Genéve in the post graduate Virtuosité class. She abandoned Switzerland after one and a half years, on being offered an appointment as a part-time lecturer in Cello at the Stellenbosch University, where she was promoted to junior lecturer in 1983, lecturer in 1986 and senior lecturer since 1996.
Over the past 24 years she has regularly returned to Europe to attend master classes herself, actively so when she was younger, and lately as observer. On these visits to Europe she also acts as assistant teacher to Prof Litschauer at Master Classes in Neuberg, Austria. During January 2004 Ms Roux taught at the famous Mozarteum in Salzburg,Austia as part of an official teacher exchange program with US. She also taught one week of cello Master Classes in Logrono, Spain in December 2004. As a result of this active contact to Europe quite a few post- and undergraduate students from mainly Austria and Germany have spent one or more semesters in Stellenbosch to study with her. A few students have also come privately for shorter, more intense periods of study.
Over the years numerous of her students in SA have been successful as cellists, winning scholarships and being accepted for further study in music schools in Europe, England and America. A number of them are presently following successful careers in Europe and even more are playing and teaching in South Africa – some also teaching cello at the other tertiary institutions in SA.
Magdalena Roux was a regular soloist as well as an enthusiastic member of the Stellenbosch Baroque Ensemble over many years. Her focus now however, is mainly on the research of and the teaching of cello at all levels of playing. The basis of her teaching philosophy is using the principles of the Alexander Technique in cello playing.
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