Stephan Galvin, who joined the CPO as timpanist in 2022, has been an ad hoc percussionist and timpanist with the CPO for more for than 10 years, and a CP Youth Orchestra percussion and timpani coach (and player) for longer (and counting, he says!). He was born into a family of musicians. His parents played bass guitar and keyboard in bands in and around Cape Town during the 1970s and 80s. His older siblings also both followed careers in music, playing clarinet. Although his musical journey started with violin and piano when he was seven, at the age of 12 Stephan realized that percussion was his true calling.
Stephan joined the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra as a founding member in 2003. In 2007, he became a cadet with the CPO and since then has been performing as an ad-hoc so he has been known to perform in a CPYO curtain-raiser on the City Hall Stage as a timpanist and then in the percussion section of the CPO. In 2008 he started to coach the percussion section of the CPYO.
“I am Inspired by the music I listen to and musical themes therein,” he says “ Especially those by composers such as Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Ravel and Dvorak. It’s the feeling of getting lost in the music. Leaving behind reality and feeling a sense of calm and rejuvenation on that final note. Its feelings like these, that are brought forward by listening to music like Dvorak’s 9th Symphony or Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations, that inspires me to want to play.”
On his days off, Stephan enjoys spending time with his family, going on long drives looking for the best little coffee shops and experimenting with electronic percussion.
