Two students from the Music Department gave outstanding performances at the South African Music Scholarship Competition on Friday, October 19. It's a national competition for young musicians under the age of 21, and musicians are chosen to compete based on their performances in the UNISA Grade VIII examination.

The main prize was won by the pianist Willem de Beer, a BMus student in his second year at the University of Pretoria. He is a pupil of Prof. Joseph Stanford. William further won the SAMRO prize for best performance of a South African composition, as well as the prize for best performance of a Romantic work. In total Willem won R24, 200 prize money from the competition.

Pianist Elri Belkum (BMus I), a student of Dr. Tessa Rhoodie, won the SAMRO prize of R10, 000 for the best pianist under the age of 20.

During 2009, Willem de Beer won the overall first prize at the Arts Trust National Piano Competition. He was also selected to participate in the National Artscape Youth Music Competition, where he won the prize for the best performance of a concerto, under the baton of Arjan Tien with the Cape Town Philharmonic. In 2011, Willem was selected to participate in the UNISA National Piano Competition, where he was the youngest competitor to advance to the semi-finals.

In the same year, Willem also won the overall first prize at the first Atterbury National Piano Competition. During 2012, Willem won the overall first prize at the Pretorium Trust Bursary competition and served on UNISA's shadow jury for the International Piano Competition. Willem was also selected to participate at the Wakkerstroom Music Bursary Competition, where he participated in the final round and received the overall third prize.