Join us for an exciting two week choral singing study program in South Africa! Led by Bongani Magatyana and Karla Mundy (Bongani Music Creations and SongRoots)- this trip will be a combination of intensive music and dance study, performances, sightseeing, , deep learning, and adventure! An amazing opportunity to experience the rich music, culture, history, tradition and people of South Africa.
struggle songs. We will study with Bongani Magatyana and several guest teachers from Cape Town at the beautiful Volmoed Retreat Center in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley about 90 minutes away from Cape Town. We will learn dance movements for every song. Four Xhosa singers from Bongani’s choirs will join us as full participants in the camp, enriching the learning experience and the cultural exchange all around. While the organizers will be in charge of meals for the first week (planning, shopping), we will all take turns to help out with meal prep and clean up during the week.
learning for about 6 hours a day during this period.
For the second week we will leave Hermanus and go to Chartfield Guesthouse -our home in Cape Town for the week (just outside of Cape Town in Kalk Bay). Bongani will arrange a week of concerts and collaborations with local choirs in and around the city while we take every possible opportunity to explore the beautiful sights of the Cape.
We will have several performances of our South African repertoire and musical exchanges with school choirs, OAC elders choir. a prison choir, Bongani's church choirs, Khayelitsha Children's Choir and more... We will also enjoy excursions to a winery, Table Mountain tramway, Cape Point, Robben Island tour, Nelson 
Mandela museum (if open by then), a dinner at Marco's Restaurant and an African Feast at Kirstenbosch Gardens!- all workshops
- all sightseeing outings
- all food in Week 1, all breakfasts in week 2 and a couple other meals (Marco's and Kirstenbosch
- all accommodations (based on double occupancy)
- all in country transport
- all donations for local choirs
- all teacher & administration fees
What's not included in the fee
- airfare to and from Cape Town
- approx 8-10 meals in second week
BONGANI MAGATYANA is a music director, composer, and theatrical producer. Born in Cape Town in a township called Old Crossroads; his father was a self-taught choir conductor in the Old Apostolic Church (OAC). Magatyana’s father taught him to read and write tonic solfa music notation at a very young age, and he dreamed of becoming a church choir conductor like his father. Today, he conducts a 120-voice OAC choir as well as a male community choir. His folk-inspired choral compositions—popular pieces for South Africa’s major choral competitions—are performed by choirs across South Africa and internationally.
During the height of the AIDS epidemic, Magatyana led an ensemble (Siyaya, based at JL Zwane Centre in Gugulethu) that was dedicated to providing HIV-prevention education through musical productions. He currently serves as an instructor—both at home, and abroad—for the organization Village Harmony, and frequently works as a clinician with university choirs in South Africa and across the United States.
When in Cape Town, Magatyana directs the Khayelitsha Children’s Choir, teaches at the Zolani Centre in Nyanga Township, leads an educational musical theatre company, and continues to compose music in a variety of genres, bringing vibrant performances to communities across the world. Bongani just produced a musical theatre production called Izikhalo Zika Nogqawuse (The musical) which was funded by the National Arts Council and created jobs for more than 40 singers and musicians