Henning Joubert

Henning Joubert was born on the 22nd of July 1981 in Klerksdorp, between maize fields and mines in the heart of the old Western Transvaal (now North West Province). Henning started making music at the age of seven in South Africa, but the piano lessons were soon given up for cricket and rugby. Seeing that Henning’s father was a musician in his own right, coaching cadet bands of the highest quality and an organist in the church, there were always instruments around, so Henning could always experiment with a variety of instruments, from a trumpet to the church organ.

At the age of 12 a teacher at Goudkop Primary School started a ‘boere-orkes’ and Henning was asked to play the concertina, as the teacher caught Henning many times in the music room with his accordion. Henning got the concertina on the Friday and by Monday he played his first tune at the school concert. Due to the fact that Henning grew up in a folk music environment, he was exposed to a great variety of musical instruments like guitars, bass guitars and drums.

After Henning matriculated at the Higher Technical School Klerksdorp, he decided to study music (guitar) at the Jazz Department of the Technikon of Pretoria where he obtained a scholarship. He had already received numerous awards ranging from ATKV, the Rock ‘Guild – Best concertina player (17 years old – modern adult section), Eisteddfod and Guinness Book of Records for the largest concertina ensemble.

While studying at the Technikon, Henning met a variety of artists and musicians, and appeared with many of them for a period of four years.