Kalu Ueckermann

Your dreams aren’t big enough if they don’t scare you! This motto sharpens Kalu’s life decisions. A young musician, he excelled in the arts early on — he started with the recorder and a love for singing, after which he moved on to keyboard / solo singing and piano. At primary school, he won the following prizes (among others):

• Ages 10 years — Certificate winner for Recorder at Helderberg Eisteddfod.
• In 2016, Kalu won the culture prize in Keyboard for achieving 90%+ or Trinity College London Initial exam.
• Also in 2016, Kalu was the trophy-winner for Stellenbosch Vocal Eistedfodd, and he received the trophy for the best performing boy in external examination: light music.
• 2017: Keyboard Trinity Grade 1 90%+, Keyboard best performance (10 year-old category) as well as the medal winner: Outstanding performance Singing Junior phase during Helderberg Eisteddfod.
• 2018: Keyboard Trinity College Grade 2, 80%; Best performance Helderberg Eisteddfod 11 years; Medal winner and Colors of Honor.
• In 2019, Kalu won the Culture Achievement: Keyboard for his performance in the Trinity exams (grade 3, 80%+); he also sang Stellenbosch Eisteddfod and won the trophy for boys of 12 years for Best National Anthem.

At the age of 10, Kalu won De Hoops Got Talent. He has been singing in choirs since 1st grade and took private singing lessons with Franky Lekas, where he was exposed to different genres. Under Franky’s tutelage, he achieved Grade 6 Trinity Solo Singing for Pop and Rock with distinction.

The arrival of the pandemic hampered his singing, but every dark cloud has a silver lining, and he taught himself to play the piano by ear during lockdown.

In 2021, Kalu crossed paths with Dr Ronella van Rensburg — and the rest is history! This unorthodox student, with different ideas on how to approach music, did not prove such a big challenge for her after all!

Kalu spent a year getting back on track, and then took part in the monthly challenge rounds of IYMC. Here, he earned Cum laude for his collective play with Dr Van Rensburg, and in a subsequent competition an astonishing 97% for his own composition. And then came the big news — he was invited to the final in New York!

His singing was not left behind, either. In 2023, he starts taking lessons from Sonja van Amstel around her to develop talent even further, and it is a great privilege to have her and Dr Van Rensburg as having mentors.