Johan of all trades

Most tourists come to Ballito for the beach, not realising that it is also home to one of the finest violin collections in the country.

Johan Grobbelaar made a name for himself as a television producer, master diver, French lecturer and photographer, but most importantly he is a violinist.

“Writing has always been my passion, but the violin has been my safety net throughout my life,” he said, while gazing into a glass cabinet filled with some of his most superb violins.

After completing his B.Mus (Hons.) in Composition, Grobbelaar was invited to work for the SABC, where he became the youngest television producer at the time.

“I developed a taste for investigative journalism and television production with the show Midweek and Special Edition, which were current affairs programmes that I produced.”

His career set off at rocket speed, and he toured across the world with television crews and won the Checkers Award for Consumer Journalism.

Years later he grew tired of it and moved to Europe, where he found himself living a French love story.

“I met a girl in Paris, it was quite nice,” he said with a chuckle.

Grobbelaar worked as a photographer in Paris for ten years, but his longing for the Indian Ocean could not be contained.

“French winters were terrible and I used to dream about being on Sheffield Beach, swimming in the warm sea, only to wake up in cold, grey Paris,” he said.

An avid scuba diver, he has also worked as an underwater videographer and supplied footage to National Geographic.

Returning in 1994, he thought was coming back to a better society, but not all the changes were to his liking.

“I taught French at Zululand University for four years and loved it, but then my contract was not renewed due to affirmative action. I was literally in the street, with my violin.”

A friend, the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra’s manager at the time, got him a job as an extra violinist in the orchestra.

Three months later, Grobbelaar was invited to step up as manager, which he said was an extremely challenging job.

“There should be a support group for ex-orchestra managers, they need it.”

Once again, affirmative action hit brutally and so Grobbelaar was back on the street for the second time.

“I asked the orchestra musicians if they had any instruments I could sell for them. I packed my little Golf full of instruments and drove to Bloemfontein to start selling.”

He returned a week later with an empty car and all his debt settled.

Having a nose for success he started his company, The Violin Connection of Southern Africa, and has since built relations with the world’s leading violin authorities in Italy, France, London and New York.

“If a violin is without a home, it usually ends up with me.”

He has dealt with some of the oldest and most expensive violins in the country, which is quite a lucrative business, considering that he once sold a bow for R250 000.

However, Grobbelaar said there are too many self proclaimed violin “specialists”, who destroy the instruments with botched repairs.

According to him, there are only about 12 people in the country who can setup a violin properly, of which maybe half can only play more than a G major scale.

“We, as a nation, have lost our collective violin sound and I do not know what has happened to it.”

Luckily his black and white cat, PietKoos helps him find the perfect pitch.

“When his ears start twitching, I know the sound is right.”

When he is not busy with four strings, the lone wolf loves to hit the road on his BMW F800 GS motorbike for a drive to Bloemfontein or Cape Town and maybe pick up a violin or two.