South African Composer & Choral Director J. S. Mzilikazi Khumalo Born June 20, 1932

[J. S. Mzilikazi Khumalo (b. 1932)]

The South African Composer, Arranger & Choral Director J. S. Mzilikazi Khumalo is also a Professor Emeritus of African Languages. He was born June 20, 1932 and is profiled at AfriClassical.com. In November 2009 AfriClassical linked to an interview with him. At the request of the South African Society of Music, we added this note:

“This interview was published in the academic journal SAMUS: South African Music Studies, Volume 28 (2008), pages 155-168. Copyright over this material is held by the South African Society for Research in Music, and it may not be reproduced without permission. The Society has granted SAMRO permission to put it on their website as a static document, with the proviso that the interview's origins in the journal SAMUS are acknowledged.

Sincerely, Zelda Potgieter, Chairperson: SASRIM"

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

“AN INTERVIEW WITH MZILIKAZI KHUMALO

Ndwamato George Mugovhani

Mzilikazi James Khumalo, Emeritus Professor in African Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand, folksong arranger, choral composer, and choir director, was born on the Salvation Army farm KwaNgwelu, in the Vryheid District of Natal, in 1932. He was the third son of Senior Major A.M. Khumalo, a priest in the Salvation Army and Mrs Ntombizodwa Johanna Khumalo. Throughout his scholastic career he sang in school choirs and thereby learned to read tonic solfa notation. He also learned staff notation through playing the euphonium in the Salvation Army band. Professor Khumalo qualified as a teacher in 1954, and thereafter studied music part-time under the organist Charles Norburn. Besides literary publications, he is a prolific composer whose works include a cantata, and an opera in the African idiom. He retired from Wits in 1998 and is Deputy Chair of the Board of Directors at SAMRO. This interview took place at SAMRO House, Johannesburg.”