Dalene Hoogenhout - Biography

Dalene Hoogenhout is the Conductor and Trainer of the Wits Choir — the official choir of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg. This will be her 16th year as conductor since being appointed to reconstitute the Choir as an independent and representative ensemble of high musical standard at the University. Under her direction, the Choir has become one of the leading choirs in South Africa, specialising in music of the African continent and particularly South Africa.

Dalene studied music at Wits, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree, specialising in Education. After teaching at various schools and colleges, she pursued her studies further and completed her Honours degree in Education cum laude at the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg).

At the age of 18, Dalene conducted her first choir and has since worked with many choirs over the years; among them the Kingsmead Girls’ Choir, the Raucall Choir, The Duke of Cornwall Singers and the Boys’ College Choir of St Stithians College, the Standard Bank Gallery Singers and the Johannesburg Chamber Choir. She has often been invited to adjudicate at choir festivals and competitions, present workshops and master classes, and has conducted many massed choirs as guest conductor.

In order to gain more knowledge and keep up with world trends in the field of choral music, Dalene has attended numerous courses on choral conducting, both nationally and abroad.

Dalene was Director of Music at St Stithians College in Johannesburg between 1997 and 2009 and had much joy in exposing many students to music and inspiring them to become involved with it. By the time she left, she had grown the number of students taking individual music tuition from 18% to 43% of the total number of students at the Boys’ College, about 450 boys! St Stithians College Music Department became a sought-after destination for aspiring young musicians, both in the Classical and Contemporary fields. She resigned from the College in order to spend more time on her choral endeavours, particularly the Wits Choir, and on her vision of establishing the Johannesburg Youth Choir, a Wits Community Choir, and to further her studies. She lectures at the Music Department at the Wits University School of the Arts on a part-time basis.

Dalene compiles, presents and produces a weekly radio programme called The Choir Adventure on Radio Today, where she exposes listeners to a wide variety of choral music to foster an interest in this genre. This new challenge is proving to be a source of great fascination and joy to Dalene and her listeners.