The WBHS Music Department takes great pleasure in welcoming Ms Jessica Scott as our new cello teacher. Jessica has a B. Mus (Perf) degree from UCT and is currently studying for a B. Com. in Human Resource Management through MANCOSA.
Born into a musical family – her father Stuart is a trombonist and her mother Lucia a violinist, both of whom play professionally in Cape Town – Jessica’s journey in music started at the age of 4 when she began piano lessons. The following year she started the cello, her primary instrument as both a performer and teacher.
Jessica was awarded a music scholarship to Herschel where she matriculated in 2016. She was always in the choir and orchestra at school, culminating in her being appointed the Head of the Herschel Choir and Herschel Chorale. During her high school career, she was regularly selected for the prestigious Franschhoek Chamber Music Workshop in the April holidays, and in 2016, she won the Fish Hoek Music Bursary Prize.
Jessica received a full fees bursary for her B. Mus. studies from the Coke Foundation, was on the Dean’s list twice, and received the Albert Libochowitz Prize twice for cello. While at UCT she was one of the winners of the Schock Chamber Music Competition in 2019 and 2020. In 2022, she graduated with a Bachelor of Music, specialising in Western Classical performance, and was awarded her degree with distinction in Cello, Chamber Music, and Ensemble.
As a professional performer, Jessica often performs with the Cape Town Pops Orchestra and is a gig musician for a variety of concerts and events.
She began teaching at the Woodstock Academy of Music in 2018 in a part-time capacity while studying, joined Wynberg Girls’ Junior School in a teaching capacity in 2020, and added the St. Cyprian’s music department to her bow in 2022. In 2023 she started teaching at Wynberg Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools, giving her the distinction of teaching at 3 of our 4 Wynberg Campus schools!
We are glad to have Jessica as a member of our peripatetic music staff in the Alf Morris Centre and we hope her stay with us is a long and happy one.
Richard Haigh
WBHS Head of Music
