Christine Lourens

"Your purpose in life is to use your gifts and talents to help other people. Your journey in life teaches you how to do that". - Tom Krause

My two greatest passions in life are music and serving. I believe that gifts are meant to be shared, and this is the motto according to which I find great joy in living my life. The things most worth enjoying in life come with hard work, perseverance, and shared experiences. I carried this motto with me into my music career.

I started my music career at approximately four years of age. At six, I began with formal practical lessons and theory on the recorder and piano, eventually with clarinet lessons. During my school career, I won several trophies for recorder and clarinet at the Music Centre of Potchefstroom Gimnasium High School. In 1999, I won the highest-level trophy for the recorder.

I obtained my music theory grade 6 at UNISA in 1996 and my clarinet and recorder grade 8 at UNISA in 1999. This year, I also received the Music Subject (clarinet) and Music Performance Subject (recorder) with distinctions in Grade 12.

I started musical studies in 2000 at the former Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. I obtained my B.Mus degree in recorder performance cum laude in 2003. I also studied music theory up to the fourth-year level. In the same year, I won the Johannes van der Merwe musical bursary for the recorder. I also obtained my post-graduate certificate in education at UNISA in 2008.

During my studies at the university, I also obtained my recorder performance licentiate and piano grade 7 at UNISA. I participated in several Eisteddfods and competitions, and once won the Open category for the recorder.

I studied the recorder under Ms Janke Kotzé, the clarinet under Ms Riekie van der Wateren, and piano under Dr Bernarda Swart. I took composition classes from Dr Hannes Taljaard. I recently started playing the oboe.

I was a member of the North West Youth Orchestra during my school career (1997 to 1999) and again from 2017 to 2021. I was also a member of the Buzzin Wind Ensemble, the NWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Potchefstroom Clarinet Choir.

I started teaching music in 1999. During my career, I taught several private students, lectured at different music centres, schools and the North-West University and participated in various concerts where I was occasionally a soloist.

I combine a variety of teaching styles in my lessons. I always use authentic music in my lessons and not just technical exercises, meaning all the music examples I use are based on actual music.  When teaching, I combine music's practical and theoretical sides of music because I believe you cannot separate them. I always have my instruments available when teaching, so I can teach through example. I also use a lot of visuals such as flashcards in my lessons. I believe that learning music should be fun;  I create my own teaching content for the lessons in which I incorporate as many elements as possible to make lessons enjoyable, which includes movement, body percussion, use of pictures, play, musical listening, creativity, improvisation as well as speech.

I have experience teaching students of any age group (babies up to retirees) and students with varying special learning needs, including Tourette's Syndrome and Down Syndrome.