Boys' choir gives hope to turmoiled South AfricaA hush grips the auditorium as the long-awaited concert by one of the world's most renowned chorales gets underway.
by Agence France-Presse
21-12-2022 17:55
in Art and Artists
Drakensberg Boys School Choir launches into Vivaldi's Gloria and a collective thrill runs through the audience. Image from Twitter/Anna Sanfilippo
A hush grips the auditorium as the long-awaited concert by one of the world's most renowned chorales gets underway.
--
Wearing neatly-ironed shirts and white frills over royal-blue waistcoats, the Drakensberg Boys School Choir launches into Vivaldi's Gloria and a collective thrill runs through the audience.
The music and the dramatic backdrop of the Drakensberg mountains set the seal on the choir's first in-person Christmas concert since the Covid pandemic.
The ensemble, whose members are aged between nine and 15 years, is one South Africa's finest cultural exports its most racially and culturally diverse chorale, and a beacon of hope in a troubled country.
--
ALSO READ: Mondrian painting hung upside down for 77 years
The choir uses music as vehicle for social mobility, for academic success (and) personality-building in a country that has been riddled by issues of race, said Pitika Ntulia, a cultural historian.
The school is almost magical, the location in the mountains the fact that we can sing almost in the mountains everyday, it's amazing, said Nicholas Robinson, 14, standing tall on manicured lawns, sporting a black blazer.
--
A fellow student at the boarding school, built on a 100-acre (40-hectare) estate in the Champagne Valley near the border with Lesotho, Ethan Palagangwe, 12, hails from Mitchells Plain, a crime-riddled Cape Town suburb.
Palagangwe landed a scholarship out of 1,600 boys auditioned after his mother responded to an ad in a local newspaper.
Born to a law-enforcement officer and a singer, the short and round-faced boy smiles, reminiscing how he started singing at home, aged eight.
We would sing out of nowhere, singing karaoke, he says.
ALSO READ: Rejuvenation: Foxwood Festival returns with purpose
He is now one of the school's top musical achievers.
Boarding and tuition at the school cost between $8,600 and $11,500 annually, depending on age.
Palagangwe's fees are jointly raised between well-wishers in a scholarship scheme dubbed back-a-buddy .
Rainbow voices' The multilingual choir's repertoire ranges from classics to contemporary pop and traditional tunes.
This is the only choir in the world that can sing in any genre, boasts conductor Vaughan van Zyl, mopping his brow between rehearsals at the height of the South African summer.
ALSO READ: 2023 National Arts Festival: Artists wanted!
Give these boys anything classical, pop, African traditional music from other countries different languages sacred music, secular music, they can do it all.
Styled on Austria's Vienna Boys choir, the Drakensberg chorale started 55 years ago at the height of the apartheid era with 21 boys, all white.
Today, it has a multi-racial roll call of 70 students, who perform at home or around the globe when they are not busy with lessons and exams.
One of the choir's proudest moments was to stage a show for Nelson Mandela atop the Drakensberg mountain.
In that choir you hear the rainbow voices, said historian Ntuli, in reference to the Rainbow Nation term used by Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa.
ALSO READ: Black women, young people excluded from ownership in film & TV
Lulo Dlulane, 11, recently joined the school. He wants to pursue a career in music production and composing.
Music is a language of all sorts, he said, clutching award certificates he had just received. It connects people and just unites us .
His mother, Lungelwa Dlulane, a 39-year-old music-loving medical doctor, said she heard about the choir as a teenager, and prayed to have a son so she could send him to the school.
Boys become men' The gumboot dance, a uniquely South African dance performed while wearing wellington boots to powerful percussion, is one the boys flawlessly transition to after singing classics.
Choreography and dancing is such a (big) part of what we do, said Van Zyl.
ALSO READ: Horizon & Vessel: Boschendal & Norval Foundation unveil new exhibitions
Baritone William Berger, 43, performs opera internationally, thanks to his grounding at the school.
What distinguishes the Drakensberg from other choirs is this full-bodied African sound, not like this light European kind of typical boys' choir noise, he said.
The school's first black student, Loyiso Bala, joined in 1990, four years before apartheid was swept away. Today, he is one of the country's most popular musicians.
Packing academic responsibilities, sports and a daily two-hour music rehearsals, is no mean feat.
It's ultimately through that very challenge they build resilience and self-discipline, said school head Dave Cato.
ALSO READ: RIP | Iconic SA film and arts critic Barry Ronge dies
Those precious skills will be put to use when the children leave the cocoon of the school.
They will have to find a way forward in life, in a country beset by crime, poverty and the lingering wounds of apartheid.
The school is a place where boys become men, said Bongi Msimang-Luthuli, mother of pupil Khwezilomso Msimang, 15.
Drakensburg Boys Choir .#goosebumps .#StarlightClassics in concert with @RMB_GM pic.twitter.com/UsiAy2C0R5
Lynda-lou (@082lyndalou) September 9, 2017
By Susan Njanji Agence France-Presse
Do you have a news tip-off? WhatsApp us on 060 011 0211
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Boys' choir gives hope to turmoiled South AfricaA hush grips the auditorium as the long-awaited concert by one of the world's most renowned chorales gets underway.
