The 16-year-old violinist Emily van Niekerk tackles the 2026 National Youth Music Competition (NYMC) after watching a couple of friends who competed in the past, and “it looked like so much fun that I have to try it.”
Hailing from Gardens in Cape Town, the Grade 10 learner at St Cyprians School believes that through the competition she will gain feedback on her playing, share her music with other like-minded people while enjoying herself.
The rising star says she knows three of her fellow contestants.
Emily’s affinity to music started when she was five years old. Her father saw her interest in the old electric keyboard he was playing. He then showed her exactly what he was playing. “I later learned that he taught me the 12-bar blues.” Two years later, she formally started playing music.
Although her parents or other family members never formally took music lessons, the young musician was always exposed to music. She recollects how her mother played Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich to her as a baby. “My dad taught himself how to play the guitar and the piano after he finished school.”
Dr Annien Shaw of the St Cyprians School is currently her music teacher. Apart from the piano, Emily likes to occasionally fiddle with the guitar. She is the youngest of three children and the only one who plays music.
She says Augustine Hadelich is her favourite violinist, but her teachers are her greatest role models.
According to her, she practices one and a half to two hours per day. In her free time, the talented musician loves making art, with watercolour painting her favourite pastime. “I also really enjoy baking and cooking, and doing sudoku puzzles from time to time.”
Johann Sebastian Bach is her favourite composer. “I like how there is method behind all his music. It is fascinating how thought-out every one of his works is,” she says.
On completion of her matric, Emily would love to take music further and play the violin professionally.
Should she be able to be an inanimate object, she would love to be a picture frame. “It holds precious memories with the people you love,” she says,
The young violinist describes herself as grounded and lives by the motto: “Be brave, not perfect.”