Jannie du Toit

CURRICULUM VITAE: JANNIE DU TOIT

Jannie du Toit emerged as singer-songwriter in the seventies Afrikaans group TRILOGIE, which frequented Braamfontein folk venue MANGLES, appeared on the test programmes of SATV in 1975, and received an honorary mention prize in the 1976 AMERICAN SONG FESTIVAL. After qualifying as a lawyer, he was appointed as cultural officer at PRETORIA UNIVERSITY where he co-wrote musicals with the likes of Afrikaans stage doyen Anna Neethling-Pohl, and was groomed by his then superior, renowned choral arranger and composer, prof. Chris Lamprecht. In 1979 Jannie became known as a solo performer thanks to the MUSIEK EN LIRIEK-awakening of Afrikaans music, sharing stages with prominent contemporaries such as Koos du Plessis, Coenie de Villiers, Anton Goosen and others intent on raising the standard of Afrikaans music – particularly in terms of textual contents. In 1988 he was introduced to the cabaret stage by the late director, poet and academic, Stephan Bouwer in VAN

BERLYN TOT BAPSFONTEIN. He was billed with Laurika Rauch in this show which had its debut in Club `58, Hillbrow, in 1988.

A fruitful co-operation was started in 1986 when he was commissioned, together with highly gifted pianist, composer–arranger, Christa Steyn, to do a programme for the Johannesburg centennial. After studying under classical maestros Adolph Hallis and Pieter de Villiers, Christa had by then already become known as accompanist and songwriter for an array of Afrikaans singers. Over the past twenty-one years, the twosome have been involved in numerous stage shows, co-wrote songs, conducted music workshops, released scores of individual CD´s, soundtracks of shows and lately a DVD of their cabaret JANNIE EN DIE TANNIE. They have toured prolifically in South Africa, performed in no less than twenty countries across the globe, and have become synonymous with Afrikaans music for the discerning listener.