A big voice comes home

THIS week gives South Africans a chance to hear a local soprano who is making waves on the music scene in the United States.

- FRANK CHEMALY

The University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra is on its first concert tour of South Africa, and joining them is acclaimed bass-baritone Daniel Washington, 2025 Grammy award-winner soprano Karen Slack and our own Goitsemang Lehobye, who grew up outside Pretoria.

Under the baton of music director and conductor Kenneth Kiesler, the show is peppered with items from some of America’s greatest composers including Gershwin, Bernstein, Bonds, Dawson and Davis, to pieces from South African composers Sidumo Nyamezele and John Knox Bokwe.

The Independent on Saturday spoke to an excited Lehobye at her home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this week.

Lehobye is keen to come home and see her family. “It’s so nice singing for my people - so nice to sing at home where people can scream and ululate. If my grandmother was here she would lead it. But I’m also bringing my alma mater with me and my teacher who's been my rock every time and has helped Michigan to become home too.”

She tells me of her musical journey growing up in Ga-Rankuwe.