10/04/2026
Have you met our conductor yet? Dr Sjoerd Alkema, we are blessed to call you ours!
Dr Sjoerd Alkema (BMus, MMus, PhD (UCT) UPLM, UTLM), supported by bursaries from UCT, completed a degree in conducting under conductors Gerhard Wimberger and Bernard Conz at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with distinction. During his studies, besides concert performances, he appeared on TV with the Arbeiters Chorverein, was piano accompanist at the Karajan Stiftung and also participated in master classes with Herbert von Karajan.
After this his versatile career as conductor, pianist, accompanist and teacher started by taking him to the Windhoek Conservatorium for 7 years as senior lecturer in piano, and as conductor. He is a founding member and conductor of the Windhoek Symphony Orchestra, leading them in multiple concerts, while also training the Windhoek Youth Orchestra. Regular concerts and radio broadcasts have included artists like i.a. Deon van der Walt, André Howard and De Wet van Rooyen with song cycles by Schubert ("Die Schöne Müllerin, "Winterreise" and "Dichterliebe") as well as Lieder by Wolff, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Dvořák, Lawrence Fall, and Arnold van Wyk.
In 1990 the Free State Performing Arts Council (PACOFS) in Bloemfontein appointed him as choir master, assistant conductor and repetiteur, while he also served as head of department at the Bloemfontein Musicon. In addition to regular piano performances, he conducted both the Free State Symphony- and Youth Symphony Orchestra. A few theatre stage highlights from this phase include Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Aïda, La traviata, Fidelio, La bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Nabucco, Die Fledermaus, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Camelot, The Sound of Music, Giselle, and Evita. For the Bloemfontein Philharmonic Choir he conducted large-scale productions which include the Requiems of Mozart, Rutter and Fauré, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Schöpfung and The Christmas Oratorio of J.S. Bach. He was nominated Bloemfonteiner of the Year for the latter.
Since May 2008 Sjoerd with his family has been living and working
in the Cape, where he obtained his PhD degree in 2012. A summary of his thesis was included in the Jubileum publication about the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, "A Century of Symphony". In partnership with his wife, Anna-Marie, they established the specialist music business Allmusic in 2009 and developed a wholesale arm that provides sheet music to other music enterprises. All four of their children are involved with music and two have attained a BMus at the University of Cape Town.
Sjoerd serves on the council of the Choral Conductors National Convention (CCNF), and is a freelance musician, conductor and music pedagogue. He most recently appeared as pianist with the cellist Michael Jones from Spain during a concert tour in 2025.
Con Spirito Philharmonic appointed Sjoerd as conductor in May 2016, since which more than 20 concerts with widely differing content have been produced. Con Spirito enjoys using local soloists, and Peter Maartens (cello), Gerhard Joubert (piano), Liesl Stolz (flute), Lisa White (oboe), and Annelize de Villiers (clarinet) have been notable as headliners. Large-scale scale works for choir, orchestra and soloists, like for example Handel's Messiah, the Brahms Requiem, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion, Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Karl Jenkins's Mass for Peace have been highlights to date. Choirs joining with Con Spirito Philharmonic in productions include the Cape Town Symphony Choir, Cape Town Chamber Choir, Tygerberg City Choir, Frank Pietersen Music Centre Choir and the Durbanville Preparatory School Choir. Regular programmes with extracts from operas and musical theatre productions grant the audience the opportunity to enjoy singers like Violina Anguelov-Hobbs, Conroy Scott, Zanne Stapelberg, Minette du Toit-Pearce, Lauren Dasappa, Lente Louw, and others.
