Brent January

Brent January is a classical guitarist from South Africa. He recently finished his Mastrers in guitar performance at Stellenbosch University, studying under the tutelage of Nina-Fourie Gouws. Brent started his classical guitar journey in 2017(age 19) when he got accepted into the certificate programme in music at Stellenbosch University. This is a bridging course for anyone who has previously not been exposed to classical music education. Prior to this, he had only been playing electric guitar for two years, playing rock and pop music. He had poor technique and could not read music at all. For one year (2017), he worked extremely hard to develop his classical playing to the required level for undergraduate studies. Brent then completed his bachelor’s in music and went on to do his master’s in music at Stellenbosch University. He is eternally grateful to his lecturer Nina Fourie-Gouws, who helped him tremendously on this journey, from discovering to nurturing his love for classical music.

In 2020, Brent was selected to take part in the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) Mentorship Program, where he had the opportunity to study with Grammy-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux. Also, as part of this program he had the opportunity to perform and record a piece that was commissioned for him by the Guitar Foundation of America. This piece is a guitar arrangement of ‘Faceiro’ by Brazilian pianist Chiquinha Gonzaga. Over the past six years, Brent has played in various ensembles, including the Stellenbosch University Guitar Quartet, Stellenbosch University Big Band. As an electric guitarist with the New Voice Sextet, he released the album “In Tune with The Infinite” in 2020. Between 2018-2020 he has performed with these ensembles at the prestigious US Woordfees Arts Festival.
After he graduated from BMus, he taught guitar part-time at The Frank Pietersen Music Centre in Paarl, Western Cape. During this time, he has been an active ensemble performer – performing with the Stellenbosch Guitar Quartet at the Classics for All Festival in Greyton, Woordfees Music Festival in Stellenbosch as well as in various concerts throughout Cape Town.

Brent takes part in as many competitions and masterclasses as he can, to improve his musicianship. An example of this was in 2022, where he received a scholarship from his university to take part in the Volterra Project, Summer Guitar Institute. This summer guitar school in Italy is run by the prestigious guitarist Antigoni Goni and was a life changing experience for Brent. Another recent example is when Brent attended the 50th annual GFA Convention in New York City in June of 2023. He was awarded a place (by audition) in the GFA guitar orchestra, which allowed him to perform Sergio Assad’s The Walls and Ben Verdery’s Scenes From Ellis Island at the convention, held in the Manhattan School of Music.
 

Brent has been teaching music for the past four years and his students span all ages and many different skill levels. He has taught in music centres, primary schools, high schools and private tuition to adults. Since 2024, Brent has been an active teacher in and around Cape Town, now teaching at Jan Van Riebeeck Primary School in Cape Town, Rhenish Primary School in Stellenbosch, and Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parrow.