Coetzee created a full scale model of a theatre, complete with orchestra pit and stage, while he was in high school 1944-1946. After he saw the movie, 'A Song to Remember', about the life of the composer Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849), he created this miniature grand piano with paintings of the Italian painter Giorgione (1477-1510) inside. Coetzee considered this theatre and its grand piano to be his first true masterpiece.