Classic to Modern – Peter Borchers joins the Vivo Music team

Vivo Music, one of South Africa’s most trusted distributors of sheet music, was established in early 2000 by Jenny and Graham Coote. As local musicians and music teachers, they were frustrated by their inability to source sheet music without long delays. This led to them establishing Vivo Music and beginning to import and distribute sheet music to Cape Town’s music teaching community. Since then, Vivo Music has partnered with numerous schools, music colleges, music teachers and independent musicians throughout Cape Town, the wider Western Cape, and South Africa in general. Through sheer hard work and a focus on fast, personal service, Jenny has grown Vivo into a well established trusted business that supplies many of the Cape’s schools, music colleges, independent music teachers and musicians.

Fast forward to 2021 and Jenny started considering Vivo’s future. Jenny was introduced to Peter Borchers and soon agreed that Peter would join the business and start to take over its operations, in preparation for Jenny to move away from sheet music and focus solely on instrument hire at some point in 2022.

So who is Peter and can I trust him with my music?

Yes you can trust him with your music, or so he says.

Peter, a keen adult piano student and choral singer with the VOX Cape Town choir, grew up in Cape Town and studied business and IT before spending the better part of ten years in London founding and running an IT company. After relocating back to South Africa and selling his business Peter decided to focus on his young family, amateur music, and exploring ways to marry his interests in music, technology and business. During this time he worked with Ian Burgess-Simpson Pianos helping establish the agency for the Fazioli and Petrof piano brands. And he spent much time attempting to become a better pianist and singer, with varying degrees of success on both fronts.

Peter’s background in amateur music, business, and technology is perfectly suited to Vivo Music, especially as a necessary next step in the business’s evolution involves expanding our sales channels to include internet sales.

Peter’s priorities are:

• To maintain and improve Vivo’s service, specifically with regards to deliveries and pick-ups.
• To ensure we have lots of stock of your most loved music books because we know how frustrating a long wait can be.
• To introduce a website which offers an alternative way of ordering and paying for music, especially for busy parents and music staff.
• To connect with as many schools as possible finding out how we can help support music departments.

“This is a thrilling challenge for me because it represents a product I love, a community I value being a part of, and a seemingly endless set of possibilities to expand and provide support for music learning in and around South Africa. I can’t wait to meet all Jenny’s customers, and convince the rest to partner with us.” – Peter B