Renée (Belcher) van den Berg completed the MMus Music Therapy degree (cum laude) through the University of Pretoria in 2012 and has worked as a music therapist and therapeutic music practitioner in a range of contexts (such as adult psychiatry, paediatric palliative care, dementia care and neuro-rehabilitation). She has also participated as a facilitator in regenerative creativity workshops for people working in the Arts.
Since completing her BA Hons in English Literature and the Licentiate in Saxophone in 2000 she has taught the saxophone, clarinet and recorder, as well as subject music, jazz band and orchestra. She has been involved in numerous community music projects such as the Western Cape Music Education Project with Ronnie Samaai (Kuils River) and the Frank Pietersen Music Centre (Paarl) where she held the position of head of the Wind Department. She has also worked as an arts journalist and jazz columnist for the Afrikaans newspaper, Die Burger, specialising in jazz and culture/place specific music (including music from Zimbabwe, Senegal, Japan, France, Spain and New Zealand). As performer, she has shared the stage with musicians, composers and writers such as Johannes Kerkorrel, Schalk Joubert, Laurinda Hofmeyr, Pierre-Henri Wicomb and Willemien Brümmer.
As a musician who has made music with people ranging from the ages of 6 months to 80 years, Renée has experienced the value of musicking as a tool to cultivate a sense of mastery, achievement, connection and community, not to mention the great joy it may bring us. As a lifelong learner about music, health and well-being she is looking forward to starting her PhD.
Renée brings a wealth of experience and insight as teacher, therapist and journalist to the Saxophone section as Orchestral Studies and Teaching Method lecturer.