Dr Bridget Rennie-Salonen, flautist, and Performing Arts Health researcher and practitioner, is Head of Woodwinds at the Music Department of Stellenbosch University (SU); lecturing in flute, Baroque traverso, woodwind teaching methods, repertoire studies, and orchestral studies; directing wind ensembles, and supervising postgraduate research. Bridget also teaches flute part-time at the University of Cape Town. She is highly sought after as a flute pedagogue, and many of her former students have excelled in competitions and in overseas studies, won scholarships for study abroad, and now occupy key performance, entrepreneurial, and educational positions in the South African (SA) music sector. Bridget serves on the committee of the Forum for Instrumental and Vocal Teaching of the International Society for Music Education (ISME).
Her PhD (utilizing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis) focused on musicians’ occupational health curriculum content, implementation, and assessment. As a Licensed Body Mapping Educator and holding certificates in the Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine and in Functional Movement Anatomy, she is particularly interested in the field of Somatics, and the interaction of the psychological, physical, and artistic aspects in performing artists, from preventative, therapeutic, and performance optimization perspectives. Bridget is chairperson of the South African Performing Arts Health Association and is a core member of the international Musicians' Health Literacy Consortium, researching musicians’ health education and health literacy.
A well-known performer in multiple genres, Bridget has appeared as a soloist with several SA orchestras. As the Solo Principal Flute of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, she was the recipient of the prestigious Ben & Faye Carklin Award for Artistic Excellence. Recent awards include Fiesta, Silver Ovation, Fanie Beetge Academic Prize, and Oppenheimer Memorial Trust awards. As a freelancer, Bridget is the principal flute of the Cape Town Festival Orchestra, regular guest principal with the Free State Symphony Orchestra, and Baroque traverso flautist with the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.
