Rudi Claase was born on 11 January 1983 and grew up in Vereeniging in South Africa with his parents and sister. He starterd playing piano at the age of four and held his first solo piano concert at the age of five. He plays solely by ear and puts it down to being ADHD and impatience He was blessed to be able to enter competitions and won “reach for the stars” two years in a row, at the age of 13 and 14 (singing Celine Dion and Mariah Carey covers) and went on to represent South Africa in Japan. At the age of 20, Rudi won another singing competition, the prize being a record deal in USA. After a few months though, we felt the tug back to South Africa and returned to work in the music industry immediately as a pianist, singer and song-writer, Even though he was already known in the music circles,he was nominated for a SAMA award for his solo album “Thalitha”, and other duet albums but returned to his solo career in 2021 He has also written songs for the biggest names in Afrikaans and In 2019, he was the youngest person to be awarded the “Afrikoon” award by the ATKV for his contribution to the Afrikaans music industry. Although Rudi’s main contribution is in Afrikaans, his songs have been translated into different languages and won awards abroad for the artists that sang them. He sings fluent and perfect English songs, both commercial as well as gospel. His multi-faceted nature means that he can adapt to whatever the client expects of him, when performing.