Laurika Rauch

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Laurika Rauch (1950- ) [1] is a South African singer and songwriter.

Biography

Born in Cape Town on 1 November, 1950. She started playing the piano at the age of five, and sang alto in "Oom Hannes Uys se Kindersangkring", a children’s choir from Pinelands, for 10 years. Laurika matriculated at Jan van Riebeeck High School in Cape Town, and then studied drama at the University of Stellenbosch, graduating in 1972.

She then moved to the Transvaal in 1974 to work as cabaret artiste and singer, becoming a household name in 1979 with the release of her rendition of Koos du Plessis's Afrikaans song Kinders van die wind - which led to a major career as an interpreter of Afrikaans luisterliedjies (lit. "songs for listening", i.e. "Lieder"), notably the work of Koos du Plessis..

See extended (Afrikaans) biography on her website [2]

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Before becoming a highly popular singer, she performed in a number of stage productions, including Old King Cole, That Skelm Scapino, Witwater se Mense, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and as a singer and pianist in Fangs. She also did Theatre in Education work.

Cabaret style work included leading roles in an adaptation of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris called Encore Brel, directed by Taubie Kushlick circa 1975. In 1981 she was a cast member of Met Permissie Gesê, an Afrikaans cabaret written by Hennie Aucamp.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurika_Rauch

af.wikipedia [3]

Laurika Rauch website [4]

SACD 1977/78; 1978/79.

Tucker, 1997.

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