Originally from Wellington, Petrus Coetzee started music lessons in violin and piano at a young age. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in violin under Louis van der Watt and his Master’s degree in Chamber Music under Suzanne Martens, both at Stellenbosch University. Thereafter, he left South Africa to complete a Masters’ Diploma in viola under Prof Klaus Christa at the Vorarlberger Landeskonservatorium in Austria and then an MMus in Viola under Prof Volker Jacobsen and String Quartet under Prof Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany.
Petrus’s career in Germany has allowed him to broaden his musical horizons and gain a wide range of experiences. In Hanover, he cultivated his love of chamber music by founding the Daphnis String Quartet with three fellow students. The quartet performed at several festivals in Germany, including the Heidelberger Frühling and the Quartettaffairs in Frankfurt, and later competed in the semi-final round of the August Everding String Quartet Competition. Petrus considers the quartet’s invitational performance of Helmut
Lachenmann’s Second String Quartet, at the composer’s 80th birthday concert in 2015, to be a highlight in his career, sharing the stage with the renowned Arditti Quartet. While in Hanover, he completed a two-year orchestral internship at the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover and became a founding member of the young innovative Ensemble Reflektor, based in Hamburg. He expanded his musical reach into the operatic repertoire while working permanently as Tutti Violist for the Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester from 2015 to 2017. Other ensembles that he has been working with, include the Bremer Philharmoniker, the Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester, the Philhramonisches Orchester Bremerhaven and the Orchester Im Treppenhaus.
After eight years abroad, Petrus returned to South Africa in 2018 to take up the position of Principal Violist of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. Besides his work with the orchestra, he is also a member of several other ensembles, such as the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, the Trio Pastel, and the Fynbos Ensemble. He currently teaches violin and viola on a part-time basis at the German International School in Cape Town.