Pianist

Riaan studied piano with Martie van Rensburg, Rosali Wilmot, Elsjé Finlay, Heidi Twilley, Dr. Henriëtte de Vries and Anna Bender. He was an active participant in master-classes with Dr. Truida van der Walt, Prof. Joseph Stanford (UP), Prof. Francois du Toit (UTC) and Prof. Anton Nel (USA). 

He received master-classes in piano accompaniment from Mathilda Hornsveld, Brenda Rein and Anna Bender.

As concert pianist and accompanist, Riaan has performed in various major concert venues in South Africa and abroad.  Various CD recordings have seen the light from 1999 to 2010. Over the past few years Riaan has worked as répétiteur and vocal coach on various classical and contemporary music productions, as well as with various Afrikaans artists named earlier. During 2010 he also acted as rehearsal pianist for ballet classes at the Tshwane University of Technology (Dance and Musical Theatre Department).

During 2005 he acted as Musical Director, Pianist and Vocal Coach for Break-a-leg Productions in ‘Nunsense’ – which received great acclaim from Pretoria News theatre critic, Diane de Beer.

During the past decade, he has been vocal coach, musical director and conductor for numerous cabarets, musical revues, productions and musicals, including ‘The Mikado’ ‘The Sound of Music’, ‘My Fair Lady’, ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’, ‘Grease’ and ‘The Boyfriend’. He also had the pleasure to work with various stage directors

During 2010 Riaan fulfilled the roles of vocal coach, assistant musical director and accompanist in the Tshwane University of Technology’s production of ‘Spelling Bee’, which received huge acclamation from Pretoria News theatre critic, Diane de Beer.  In addition he acted as part time lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology (Musical Theatre and Dance Department) as vocal coach, accompanist and lecturer. 

As performer of jazz and contemporary music, he appeared with well known Afrikaans artists like Anneli van Rooyen, Rina Hugo, Phillip and Ella Kotzé, Nadine, Ryan Walt and Nedine Blom, Marlouise Venter, MJ (Johan) Kellerman and Laurika Rauch in different capacities such as vocal coach, vocalist, pianist or accompanist. In addition, he took part in various productions for the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Aardklop Arts Festival as well as the Gariep Arts Festival.   He performed in numerous national theatres like The Performer, Breytenbach Theater, South African State Theater, Sandt du Plessis Theater, Sanlam Auditorium, Z.K. Mathews Auditorium, Endler Auditorium and Barnyard Theaters.