Wilmien previously studied with Professor Jack de Wet in South Africa from 2010 and has recently completed her undergraduate degree as a pupil of Professor Pieter Schoeman at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Since her solo debut at nine years old with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, she has gone on to perform with orchestras all over her home country. In 2006 she performed with the Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Winter Olympics stadium in Turin at the closing ceremony of the 14th International Suzuki Convention and was invited to perform the Kabalevsky Concerto with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011. In the same year she was also taken up into the Unisa Music Foundation’s Program for Gifted Young Musicians.
As a duo with pianist Roelof Temmingh, they have won the ATKV National Ensemble Competition twice. In 2014, Wilmien won 1st prize at the Yamaha Lovemore Music Competition, as well as being selected to play in the finals of the ATKV Muziq competition as the only high school student. Wilmien was also co-concertmaster of the South African National Youth Orchestra under the baton of Fredrik Burstedt, and toured South Africa with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington in January 2013. At the age of 15, she was runner-up in the strings category at the Artscape Competition. Also the only high school student to play in the finals of the Unisa Music Directorate Competition in the company of masters and PhD students in October 2014; Wilmien went on to win the strings category.
Studying in London at Trinity Laban has afforded Wilmien incredible opportunities and plenty of exposure to orchestral playing with many of the UKs finest conductors and she has had the privilege of performing in many of London’s iconic performance spaces including Cadogan Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Blackheath Halls and St John’s Smith Square. She has received masterclasses from the likes of Barnabas Kelleman, Alissa Margulis, Thomas Bowes and Mi-kyung Lee. She has also been involved in the premieres of a number of contemporary composers’ works such as Stephen McNeff’s opera Banished, and was featured playing solo on the soundtrack of the 2017 short film Heaven’s Rage which was very well received by critics and film festivals in the UK, France, Canada and the USA. Trinity Laban also afforded her the opportunity to perform in the Barnes Music Festival alongside professionals in the industry.
She is particularly interested in contemporary works and has also helped plan and performed in a concert series titled, “An Evening of New Music”, a termly showcase of Trinity Laban’s composers’ works in a relaxed setting acting as a platform to champion contemporary music.