Ruth Coggin first fell in love with the pipe organ at the age of 16 and began lessons with James Gordon at St John’s College, Johannesburg. After matriculating, she studied music at Wits University, graduating in 1979 with a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in pipe organ and clarinet. She also holds a Performance Diploma in piano from the Trinity College of Music, London. She has been the accompanist for the Johannesburg Bach Choir for the past eight years. She has been music director, choir leader and organist at several churches during her career, including the Central Methodist Mission, Johannesburg and St Francis Anglican Church, Parkview.

She also founded the Johannesburg Queer Chorus in 2020 and was music director of the JQC until mid-2023. During this time, she led the choir to the international One Voices festival in Italy, the only choir from Africa to participate, at which they sang at the opening and closing ceremonies.

Ruth also enjoys accompanying the Lewandowski Chorale, a Johannesburg choir that focuses on liturgical Jewish music, sung in Hebrew.

Ruth is co-owner with her husband, Theo, of their business, Quo Vadis Communications, specialising in writing, editing, digital marketing, crisis communications and communications training. She has one son, Thomas, a senior lecturer in law at Wits University, and two step-children, Andrew, a Down’s Syndrome person, and Jenni who runs her own market research and leadership mentoring company.