Leandri Louw

BIOGRAPHY

Leandri Louw is an MMus candidate at the Africa Open Institute and a part-time educator in clarinet and saxophone. She graduated with a BA Music (Psychology) in 2021, and a BMus Honours (Cum Laude) in 2023 from Stellenbosch University. Her Honours research under the supervision of Dr. Carina Venter entailed white innocence and Afrikaner nationalism in an Afrikaans pop music concert titled Staan Sterk in Afrikaans. This research was presented at the South African Society for Research in Music’s annual conference in 2023.  

RESEARCH

In her study preliminary titled “Playing Power and Perceptions: the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra”, Leandri is conducting an ethnography of power relations in a symphony orchestra under the supervision of Dr. Carina Venter and Dr. Hilde Roos. The study is informed by Foucault’s theory of power as an undeniable, productive and necessary set of relations present in every social setting. Located in intersections of symphonic orchestral performance and music education, she uses the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra as a case study for this research. This thesis includes an account of the orchestra’s history and existence, as well as an ethnography of power relations, institutional positioning and prestige throughout the orchestra’s history.