Obituary: Retha Cilliers - Pied Piper who led children on a joyful dance

Retha Cilliers has died at the age of 57. She was a hugely talented classical musician who, once she had retired, became a "mother" to thousands of children in many of the poorest areas of South Africa.

1956-2014

During 14 years as the CEO of the not-for-profit Field Band Foundation, she played Pied Piper to more than 35000 young people whose lives were given a purpose and structure through music and dance.

Appointed by the fledgling foundation in 1998, Cilliers led its growth from a handful of marching bands in the major urban areas to 46 bands, each with 120 members, in cities, towns and villages throughout South Africa.

Playing in the bands taught children from broken and impoverished homes life skills such as discipline, timekeeping, teamwork, effort and reward, conflict management, civic awareness, gender sensitivity and the avoidance of HIV/Aids.

She said she knew all their names. While waiting to perform, they would run up to her and ask whether she knew their names. Invariably, and to their utter delight, she did.

Her life revolved around them and she would happily take their calls for help and guidance late into the night.

Her bands performed at the closing ceremony of the Fifa Soccer World Cup, the Africa Cup of Nations and thousands of sports events, weddings, funerals and store openings.

Cilliers was born in the Orange Free State on June 4 1956. After matriculating from Hoërskool Menlopark, she obtained a bachelor of music degree at the University of Pretoria.

She was taught by one of South Africa's greatest composers, Stefans Grové.

Cilliers was a brilliant bassoonist and Grové wrote several sonatas for her and pieces for the bassoon, specifically with her in mind, in his symphonies.

She joined the old Performing Arts Council of Transvaal orchestra and played for the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in Spain before becoming principal bassoonist with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cilliers always said that she did not want to be "an ageing bassoonist" and intended ending her career at 40.

Wondering what to do next, she was approached by Bertie and Ronnie Lubner, founders of the PG Group, who asked her to head the Field Band Foundation they had started and were largely financing.

They took her to see the first of the foundation's bands "murdering the national anthem", as Cilliers put it, at a performance in KwaThema, Springs, on the East Rand.

"I thought there is a lot that can be done here," she recalled.

She took charge with a mixture of gritty determination and self-effacing humility.

She had no formal business training, but discovered she had a considerable talent for administration.

She relentlessly "bullied" and charmed donors and partners, many of them corporates from South Africa, Norway, Belgium and the US, to contribute money and other support.

Many of the foundation's 35000 alumni work in bands or the music industry in South Africa and elsewhere. Almost 100 have been sent to Europe and the US for specialist training in various musical disciplines. A number have obtained university degrees with the help of scholarships arranged by the foundation. Cilliers kept in touch with most of them - and they with her.

She was a heavy cigarette smoker and, in August last year, she was diagnosed with lung cancer.

Her second husband, Peter Wright, to whom she was married for 20 years, died in 2011. She is survived by her first husband and close friend Ugo Paladini.