Voice of Hope

Pumeza Matshikiza's debut album on Decca Classics tells her incredible story in music: from her childhood in the townships of South Africa to the stage of Europe s great opera houses. Growing up amid the violence of apartheid in 1980s South Africa, Pumeza moved with her mother from one township to another around Cape Town looking for ever-safer places to live. She discovered opera by accident, channel-surfing the radio as a teenager. Overcoming extraordinary obstacles and prejudice she eventually enrolled at the South African College of Music in Mandela s post-apartheid world. South African composer Kevin Volans recognised the distinctive beauty of her voice and bought her a plane ticket to London where she auditioned for the Royal College of Music. She was immediately offered a full scholarship, and from there she went on to join the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Today she is a leading artist at Stuttgart Opera. Voice of Hope follows her musical journey from townships to the operatic stage with traditional South African songs in her native Xhosa language (many made famous by Miriam Makeba); tracks accompanied by The African Children s Choir, including a new arrangement Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika (The National Anthem), through to popular opera arias by Mozart and Puccini.