Dr Esthea Kruger

Esthea Kruger obtained her BMus and MMus (Piano Performance) degrees at Stellenbosch University under the guidance of Prof Nina Schumann and Prof Luis Magalhães, her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the University of North Texas under the tutelage of Prof. Vladimir Viardo, and her Meisterklassendiplom at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg in the class of Prof Bernd Glemser. Additionally, she specialised in Art Song Accompaniment, obtaining a second master’s degree in 2019 in Liedgestaltung from the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg as student of Prof Gerold Huber.

Esthea Kruger has won prizes at many major competitions in South Africa, such as the SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition, the ATKV-Muziq Competition, the FMR/Pick 'n Pay Travel Award Competition, the Stonehage Bursary Competition, the Mabel Quick Overseas Scholarship Competition and the UNISA National Piano Competition. In 2009, she became the first music student to receive Stellenbosch University’s Chancellor’s Medal.

Esthea Kruger has performed with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa. She has also been the recipient of numerous bursaries for her overseas studies: the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Scholarship, the P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship, and a DAAD scholarship from the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg.

Apart from her solo performances, Esthea Kruger regularly appears in concert as accompanist and chamber musician, in South Africa and abroad. As Lied accompanist she was awarded the pianist prize at the Armin Knab Singing Competition in 2013, 2015 and 2017. In 2018 she performed at the DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert in Switzerland.

Esthea Kruger is the founder and artistic director of “Neues Lied”, a festival for contemporary art song that she has organised yearly in Germany since 2018 and established in Cape Town in 2022. In 2020, the festival was awarded the City of Würzburg’s “Kulturförderpreis” (Culture Prize). She was also appointed as the artistic director of The Songmakers’ Guild in 2022.

Since 2019 Esthea Kruger is senior lecturer in piano at the South African College of Music.