Lionel Bowman Prize
Best performance of a complete solo piano work by Beethoven.
The Lionel Bowman Prize for Beethoven Playing started 22 years ago when it was suggested to Lionel Bowman that he create a piano prize in his name. After an extensive fundraising campaign, approximately R100 000 was collected from Lionel’s friends, colleagues and admirers all over the world and he was able to share this prize between the three music departments with which he was associated: UCT, Stellenbosch and Pretoria.
Sadly, Lionel passed away in 2006 while he was adjudicating his Beethoven competition in Pretoria, and today’s event commemorates the 14th anniversary of his death. Lionel was well-known to South African audiences as one of the nation’s finest and most celebrated concert pianists and teachers, with a truly international performing career. According to the first edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians “he is known primarily as an interpreter of Beethoven”, and it is fitting that this prize recognises his achievements in this area.
James de Villiers Prize
Candidates must present a single work, or movement(s) from a Romantic work.
Robert Andrews Prize
Candidates must present a single work, or movement(s) from a work composed in the last hundred years by a composer from the Southern Hemisphere.
FINAL ROUND: Tuesday 11 November 2025, Baxter Concert Hall, 1pm onwards
This competition is open to any full-time classical piano students at the SACM.
Students may win these competitions more than once, but not in consecutive years.
Lionel Bowman Prize
Best performance of a complete solo piano work by Beethoven.
James de Villiers Prize
Best performance of a Romantic work - full work or a movement from a work.
Robert Andrews Prize
Best performance of a work composed in the last hundred years by a composer from the southern hemisphere - full work or a movement from a work.
2024
LIONEL BOWMAN PRIZE
Isaac van der Merwe - Beethoven Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109
JAMES DE VILLIERS PRIZE
Gerhard Joubert - Scriabin Fantasy in B minor, Op. 28
ROBERT ANDREWS PRIZE
Shared between
Dané van Graan - Johnson Jazz Impromptu No. 3
& Gerhard Joubert - Arnold van Wyk Berceuse from Tristia
2023
LIONEL BOWMAN PRIZE
Simon Wu - Beethoven Variations and Fugue, Op. 35
JAMES DE VILLIERS PRIZE
Bayanda Mthetho - Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses, Op. 54
ROBERT ANDREWS PRIZE
Rosemarie Brodie - Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph Three Dimensions
LIONEL BOWMAN PRIZE R2000
JAMES DE VILLIERS PRIZE R3000
ROBERT ANDREWS PRIZE R5000
The competition is adjudicated by a panel of widely recognised and experienced professional musicians. Previous adjudicators have included: Prof Hendrik Hofmeyr, Sandra Kettle, Bennie van Eeden and Dr Pieter Grobler.
