Corrie has music in his veins
Meet Corrie Pretorius from the Richards Bay band, Zeeroover.
IF you grow up listening to South Africa’s first opera diva Mimi Coertse in rehearsal with leading opera tenor and actor who had a great influence on Afrikaans culture, Gé Korsten, plus a talented musical father, you can’t help but find the crotchets and minims, treble and bass coursing through your veins.
Zululand’s talented muso Corrie Pretorius (Zeeroover band member with Eugene Viljoen), claims Mimi as his aunt and vividly recalls sitting quietly in the studio at age seven, observing her and Gé practicing their arias.
‘She had this Steinway grand piano with black ‘white notes’ and white ‘black notes’ – a piano the company especially made for her,’ says Corrie.
Coertse was a vocalist of international repute and chief female vocalist in an opera company, a position she held for 17 years in Vienna where she reigned as first coloratura of the famed State Opera.
She studied at the Vienna Academy for only 18 months before stunning the sophisticated Viennese public with a sensational debut at the State Opera.
Corrie’s dad Dewald (Danny) Pretorius, an accordion player, not only joined the hilarious and colourful ‘Spies en Plessie met Permissie’ programme on TV1 in 1984, but was also a racing driver who tackled the seventh Total International Cape to Cairo rally and won his class.
Corrie’s older brother, Julius Magan, is a well- known gospel artist and Corrie himself made his first public appearance at age 12 when he sang and played guitar in the opening act for Herbie and Spence in Port Shepstone.
‘I have been in the music industry for 35 years. I had a band, ‘Slightly Touched’, in Richards Bay and played at the opening of the Boardwalk.
‘I have also played in the bands Vagabond, Insane Obsession and currently Zeeroover.
‘I’m a ’70s old school rock fanatic and mostly listen to Deep Purple. My guitar hero is Richie Blackmore from Deep Purple.’
Corrie feels that in South Africa talent is not exposed and that people need to support live music as people are, in fact, hungry for good live music.
