Erin Solomon

Erin Solomon is an avid Cape Town percussionist with specialised experience across solo, chamber and orchestral performance. After kindling a love for percussion in the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Erin pursued his Bachelor of Music in Classical Performance under the tutelage of Frank Mallows at the South African College of Music. Having now completed his Bachelors with Distinction, Erin is currently pursuing his Master of Music by Performance and Dissertation at the SACM.  He receives joint percussion instruction therefore by Christoph Müller, principal timpanist of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Stéphane Pechoux, principal timpanist of the Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, and marimba soloist Dylan Tabisher.

In both the first and second years of his BMus, Erin performed as a soloist with the UCT Symphony Orchestra in its annual concerto festivals. As a chamber musician, his ensembles have been awarded 1st place at the 2024 Hendrik Hofmeyr Prize for Best Performance of a South African Work competition, and 2nd place at both the 2023 and 2025 Schock Foundation Prize for Chamber Music competitions.

As an orchestral musician, Erin has been a regularly-engaged ad hoc percussionist and timpanist for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra since 2022. He is also a section percussionist for the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, and an ad hoc percussionist for the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2024, Erin was furthermore selected as a founding member of the African United Youth Orchestra and participated in its inaugural tour to New York City for the Carnegie Hall World Orchestra Week festival.

Since 2022 Erin has additionally been a passionate participant in the annual Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF), where he has regularly played as principal timpanist for the festival’s symphony orchestra. At his first SICMF in 2022 Erin received a masterclass from Jauvon Gilliam, principal timpanist of the United States National Symphony Orchestra, and was awarded the festival's scholarship to shadow and study with Mr Gilliam in Washington D.C., an undertaking he completed at the beginning of 2023. 

Erin lectures percussion part-time at the SACM, and is an active adjudicator for local eisteddfods and music competitions. His emerging academic research focuses on the performance practice of Peter Klatzow’s marimba music.