A silence takes over the auditorium while the long-awaited concert by one of the most renowned choirs in the world begins.
In neatly pressed shirts and white ruffles over royal blue waistcoats, the Drakensberg Boys School boys’ choir launches into Vivaldi’s theatre. Glory and a collective emotion runs through the public.
The music and the dramatic backdrop of the Drakensberg mountains sealed the choir’s first in-person Christmas concert since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Students from the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir carry candles during a rehearsal for a Christmas performance at the school near Winterton on December 9, 2022.
Students from the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir perform during a Christmas performance at the school near Winterton on December 10, 2022.
Students from the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir perform during a Christmas performance at the school near Winterton on December 10, 2022.
The ensemble, whose members range in age from nine to 15, is one of South Africa’s best cultural exports: its most racially and culturally diverse choir and a beacon of hope in a troubled country.
The choir uses “music as a vehicle for social mobility, for academic success (and) character development in a country riddled with racial issues,” 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 every day, it’s amazing,” said Nicholas Robinson, 14, standing on manicured grass wearing a blazer. black.
A fellow student at the boarding school, built on a 100-acre (40-hectare) property in the Champagne Valley near the Lesotho border, 12-year-old Ethan Palagangwe hails from Mitchells Plain, a suburb of New York City. Crime-ridden Cape.
Palagangwe won a scholarship among 1,600 boys who auditioned after their mother responded to an ad in a local newspaper.
Born to a law enforcement officer and a singer, the boy smiles, remembering how he started singing at home, at the age of eight.
“We’d sing out of the blue, singing karaoke,” he says.
He is now one of the top musical achievers in school.
Accommodation and school tuition cost between Rand 147,576 ($8,600) and Rand 197,340 ($11,500) per year, depending on age.
Palagangwe’s fees are collected jointly among supporters in a scholarship scheme called “back-a-buddy”.
‘Rainbow Voices’
The multilingual choir’s repertoire ranges from classical 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, wiping his brow between rehearsals at the height of the South African summer.
“Give these guys anything classical, pop, traditional African music from other countries, different languages… sacred music, secular music, they can do it all.”
Styled after the Vienna Boys’ Choir of Austria, the Drakensberg Chorale began 55 years ago at the height of the apartheid era with 21 boys, all white.
Today, it has a multiracial roster of 70 students, who perform at home or around the world when they’re not busy with lessons and exams.
One of the choir’s proudest moments was performing a performance for Nelson Mandela on top of the Drakensberg mountain.
“In that chorus you hear the voices of the rainbow,” said historian Ntuli, referring to the term “Rainbow Nation” used by Desmond Tutu to describe post-apartheid South Africa.
Lulo Dlulane, 11, recently joined the school. He wants to pursue a career in music production and songwriting.
“Music is a language of all kinds,” he said, holding up the award certificates he had just received. “It connects people… and just brings us together.”
His mother, Lungelwa Dlulane, a 39-year-old music-loving doctor, said she heard about the choir as a teenager and “prayed” that she would have a son and send him to school.
The gumboot dance, a unique South African dance performed with wellington boots and powerful percussion, is one of the guys they transition seamlessly into after singing classics.
“Choreography and dance are a (big) part of what we do,” Van Zyl said.
Baritone William Berger, 43, performs opera internationally, thanks to his training at the school.
What distinguishes the Drakensberg from other choirs is “this full-bodied African sound,” not “like this light European boy choir noise,” he said.
The school’s first black student, Loyiso Bala, enrolled in 1990, four years before apartheid ended. He today he is one of the most popular musicians in the country.
Packing academic responsibilities, sports, and daily two-hour music rehearsals is no small feat.
“Ultimately, it’s through that very challenge … they build resilience” and self-discipline, said school principal Dave Cato.
Those precious skills will be put to use when the children leave the cocoon of 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 15-year-old student Khwezilomso Msimang.
