Beau Soleil Music Centre

The Beau Soleil Music Centre was officially opened in 1983 by the Western Cape Education Department to meet the needs of specialised instrumental music tuition in the Cape Town area. It was the first Music Centre of its kind to be set up in the Western Cape. It is situated in Kenilworth in an old manor house called Beau Soleil, which was built in 1877 and declared a National Monument after major restoration in 1982.

From the outset the guiding ethic of the Beau Soleil Music Centre has been to enrich the lives of young people through music education. This policy has been enthusiastically applied by the school staff throughout the past 27 years. The number of pupils attending has grown from the initial 100 who started in 1982 to over 350 pupils at present. Beau Soleil is extremely proud of the fact that many South African musicians, currently active in both the classical and light music fields, acquired their music tuition and honed their musical skills at the Music Centre. The Music Centre has an ensemble programme of four Wind Ensembles, four String Ensembles, and four Percussion ensembles, a Brass Ensemble, a Wind Quintet, a String Quartet, two Saxophone Quartets and a Jazz Band.