Sunday, June 23, 2013

Shadow and Act: 'Watch Inspiring Short Video About South African Opera Singer Pumeza Matshikiza'


Pumeza Matshikiza (Shadow and Act)

Shadow and Act (Click link for video)
Sergio Mims
June 22, 2013
So continuing with my weekend series of inspiring video shorts about black musicians who are breaking boundaries and “thinking outside the box”, here’s number two of three.

Today we focus on opera singer Pumeza Matshikiza who has just signed a recording contact with the major classical music label Decca Classics, who, in turn, has produced a short video in which Ms. Matshikiza goes back to the townships of Cape Town, South Africa where she was born and raised to talk about her very humble beginnings.

In a recent interview, she talked about the journey of her life, participating in anti-apartheid demonstrations when she was a very young child, even being attacked by the police with tear gas. She even witnessed people being “necklaced” (tires filled with gasoline placed around a person’s neck and being set on fire) right in front of her.

She started singing in church choirs along with her mother, but when she heard her first opera on the radio as a teenager, that’s when her life changed. As she said:  "I didn't know anything about opera, but when I found that channel, I started to listen to it because it was so beautiful. After that I listened to that station almost every evening."

But her teachers and peers convinced her that there was no future in classical music and she actually was planning to become a surveyor at first, but stuck to her dreams and studied voice at the University of Cape Town.

She got a job performing in a puppet show and the producer of the show was so impressed with her voice that he convinced her to apply to the Royal College of Music in London which she did and was immediately accepted.  
The rest is history. 

She is currently under contract to the Stuttgart Opera and performs in other opera houses and recitals all over the world, attracting the attention of Decca Classics who quickly signed her up.

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