Photograph of Bongani Ndodana-Breen by Anna Morris

Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen has written a wide range of music encompassing symphonic work, opera, chamber music and vocal music. According to The New York Times his “delicately made music – airy, spacious, terribly complex but never convoluted – has a lot to teach the Western wizards of metric modulation and layered rhythms about grace and balance.”

Performers around the world have performed his music including the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Opera Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Kwa Zulu-Natal Philharmonic, Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic, New York City’s Vox Vocal Ensemble, Ensemble Noir, Chicago’s Cube Ensemble, Avalon String Quartet of Chicago and Ossia.

Dr. Ndodana-Breen has received commissions from Wigmore Hall, Vancouver Recital Society, Madam Walker Theatre Indianapolis, SAMRO, University of South Africa, Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, Cape Town Opera, the Emancipation Festival of Trinidad & Tobago, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Luminato Festival Toronto, Haydn Festspiele Eisenstadt (Haydn 200th anniversary) and the 2013 Johannesburg International Mozart Festival.

He is the composer of Winnie, The Opera based on the life of Mrs Winnie Mandela, which premiered in 2011 to great acclaim at the State Theatre in Pretoria. On this opera Die Beeld wrote: “Ndodana-Breen is a composer of stature. This is confirmed by the outstanding portraiture of Winnie.” Other operas include the children’s chamber opera Themba & Seliba, the chamber monodrama Umuntu – Threnody (commissioned by the National Arts Council) and the short opera Hani (commissioned by UCT & Cape Town Opera) premiered at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town in 2010.

In 2012 he was commissioned to write Mzilikazi: Emhlabeni (a sinfonia concertante for piano and orchestra) for pianist Florian Uhling at the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival. His multimedia oratorio Credo (based on South Africa’s Freedom Charter) with libretto by novelist Brent Meersman and multimedia design by Andrew Black was commissioned by the University of South Africa and premiered at the ZK Mathews Hall in Pretoria on July 18, 2013. Credo featured a cast led by Sibongile Khumalo and the JPO and was broadcast nationally on SABC TV in the presence of the President of South Africa. Credo was presented again on Freedom Day (April 27) 2014 by Artscape in Cape Town as part of the commemoration of 20 Years of Democracy in South Africa. 2015 saw the world premiere of Three Orchestral Songs on Poems of Ingrid Jonker which was commissioned for The Cape Town Philharmonic to mark the 50th anniversary of Jonker’s death. Recordings of Ndodana-Breen’s music are available on Naxos’ Capriccio label and MSR Classics.

Dr. Ndodana-Breen graduated from Rhodes University with a PhD in Music Composition. He was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music in 1998 and selected as one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans of 2011. He was Director of the Canadian new music organisation Ensemble Noir from 1999 – 2007 touring to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. According to Canada’s The Globe and Mail “He seems to be just as interested in giving pleasure as in opening people’s minds... which makes him doubly a novelty on the Toronto New Music scene” (Globe and Mail, Nov 2001).

Kutlwano Kepadisa

Kutlwano Kepadisa is a conductor, choirmaster, arranger, curator and multidisciplinary producer based in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Born in Soshanguve, Tshwane, Kutlwano arrived in Makhanda after Matriculating in Johannesburg. Now working as freelance conductor and music director, Kutlwano was the director of Music at the Anglican Cathedral of St Michael and St George and lead the Makana Choir School Programme. He was also the director of the Rhodes University Chamber Choir as well as the Chamber Choir of the Diocesan School for Girls and St Andrew’s College and the Music Director of the National Arts Festival Community Choral Spectacle – Masicule.

He is the founder and artistic director of the KWANTU Choir – a community choir in Makhanda. He has been adjudicator for the Intervarsity Choral Competition and a Panellist for Standard Bank Ovation Awards in 2022 and 2023. Kepadisa is a BASA (Business and Arts South Africa) affiliated member and Common Purpose Alumnus and is a graduate of the Inaugural Cultural Producers Programme, powered by British Council.

Under his direction, Kepadisa’s productions have achieved several accolade and recognition, including a silver diploma art the World Choir Games; 5 (five) Standard Bank Ovation Awards, (three of which achieved Category Bronze); 2 (two) ATKV Applous Gold Awards (Prestige Category); and were Runner up Champions at the Sing in Harmonie National Competition and Cantamus National Choir Festival.

Kepadisa has collaborated with some of South Africa’s most talented musicians including Vusi Mahlasela, Sibgongile Khumalo, Sibongile Mngoma, Zahara, Dumza Maswana, Christo Jankowitz, Catherine Foxcroft, Alby Michaels, Mandla Mbothwe, Zoe Modiga and Msaki.

MAKHANDA KWANTU CHOIR

Makhanda KWANTU Choir is a renowned community choir of around 40 diverse singers from Makhanda, South Africa. The Choir prides itself as choral ambassadors of Makhanda. It has represented the town at National and international festivals such as the Choral Celebration Festival, National Arts Festival and the World Choir Games. It is currently under the artistic direction of its founding conductor Kutlwano Kepadisa who is based in Johannesburg and conducted by Ambesa Cagwe as resident conductor in Makhanda

Kwantu is a training choir for the Annual Creative City event, “Masicule – Celebrating the voices of Makhanda”. The Choir also serves as a ceremonial choir for many official local, provincial and national events around Makhanda. The KWANTU Choir has performed in the National Arts Festival since its founding year in 2017. Since then they have released a digital album, a documentary, and music docu-series on the National Arts Festival. The choir has won three Standard Bank Ovation Awards at the National Arts Festival Fringe (in 2019, 2023 and 2024) receiving the Bronze Category Ovation in both 2023 and 2024. They are also recipients of Silver Diploma at the Interkultur World Choir Games (2018).

Kwantu Choir has performed for important dignitaries such as President Ramaphosa and authors J.M Coetzee and Sindiwe Magone and has continuously collaborated with some of South Africa’s most respected artists such as Sibongile Khumalo, Vusi Mahlasela, Zahara, Nomfundo Xaluva, Asakhe Cuntsulana, Dumza Maswana, Mandla Mbothwe, Banda Banda Agency, Buhlebendalo Mda, TRESSOR and many others; and in the past two years collaborated very closely with Artists Msaki and Zoe Modiga in their producing their Standard Bank Young Artist Shows at the 2023 and 2024 National Arts Festival.