Mzilikazi Khumalo

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James Stephen Mzilikazi Khumalo (born June 20, 1932 in KwaNgwelu, Natal Province , † June 22, 2021 ) was a South African composer and choir director .

Khumalo was born on the Salvation Army farm KwaNgwelu in the South African province of Natal to religious parents who moved to Durban , Hlabisa and finally to Vryheid as members of the Salvation Army . He sang in the school choir and played the euphonium in a church band and as a soloist . He attended Fred Clarke High School in Soweto and studied English and Zulu at the University of South Africa until 1956 . He then taught at Wallmansthal Secondary School. In 1969 he started at the African Languages ​​Section of the University of the Witwatersrand where he was promoted to the position of Section Leader and Professor of African Languages.

Khumalo's first composition Ma Ngificwa Ukufa was premiered in 1959 and then selected for performance at the 1961 African Teachers Association of South Africa's choir festival in Bloemfontein . In the 1980s he collected and arranged traditional folk music from South Africa, working with the lyric poet Themba Msimang .

As the leader of the Soweto Songsters, a choir of the Salvation Army, Khumalo performed inter alia. in the UK, Israel and Norway. In 1983 the Amazwi KaZulu Choir organized a festival in his honor. With Isibaya Esikhulu Se-Afrika , Khumalo won the tenth songwriting competition of the African Bank. For the installation of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1986 he composed Intonga YoSindiso .

From 1989 Khumalo directed the annual Sowetan Nation Building Massed Choir Festival with Richard Cock . His Five African Songs for choir and symphony orchestra were recorded in 1995 by the National Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Choir of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) under the direction of Richard Cock. Also in the 1990s was his opera Ushaka KaSenzangakhona , which was performed in 1997 by the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC under the direction of Robert Maxym with the soloists Sibongile Mngoma (soprano), Sibongile Khumalo (mezzo-soprano) Themba Mkhwani (tenor) and Peter Mcebi (baritone) for Sony Records was recorded.

In 2002 he composed the first opera written on isiZulu with Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu . It's about Princess Magogo .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Patience Bambalele: Choral music icon Prof Mzilikazi Khumalo dies a day after his 89th birthday. In: sowetanlive.co.za. June 22, 2021, accessed June 23, 2021 .
  2. Innocentia J. Mhlambi: The question of nationalism in Mzilikazi Khumalo's Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu. In: tandfonline.com , 2015 (English).