Young soprano is on the right path
WHEN she grew up, Cecilia Rangwanasha was keen to become a lawyer but her mother persuaded her to further her passion for singing.
Now, aged 23, Cecilia has more than proved that she is on the right path as an up-and-coming soprano. “I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember,” she says.
Like many professional singers, Cecilia was in a church choir and she excelled at her studies at university, graduating cum laude. A postgraduate diploma student at the University of Cape Town, Cecilia completed her B Tech in vocal art (Performance), at the Tshwane University of Technology, under the vocal tuition of Kiewiet Pali.
As a pupil, she represented Limpopo at the South African Schools Choral Eisteddfod competitions, from 2009 to 2012, and she sings as soloist at the National Choir Festival, Melting Pot and Free State competitions.
She has also performed in the TUT student productions of Faust (2013), La Cenerentola (2014) and Falstaff (2015); and participated in concerts and master classes with the internationally acclaimed Professor Michelle Breedt, Professor Kliesie Kelly Moog, Professor Barbara Hill Moore and Professor Josef Protschka.
She is both modest and proud when listing some of her other accolades: last year after performing the role of Fiordiligi in TUT’s Cosi Fan Tutte she was awarded first prize in the Phillip H Moore Music Competition and next month she takes part in the ATKV semi-finals and finals, if she goes ahead. In October she will know if she’s a finalist after auditioning for the prestigious Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition.
Cecilia is honing her skills as a studio member at Cape Town Opera and is rehearsing as understudy for the role of Senta in Der Fliegende Hollander, Wagner’s opera of a cursed sea captain and his ghostly ship.
As we meet on the eve of Women’s Day, Cecilia says she cannot pay enough tribute to her late mother. “My mother went through so much and it’s poignant to remember her on this day.”
One of four children, she was raised by her single mother in a small village in Limpopo. “My mother struggled to make ends meet and my brothers helped to support me when they left school and started working,” she says.
Speaking about her work with the Cape Town Opera as a soprano and on Der Fliegende
Hollander, Cecilia says she is currently focusing on getting as much experience as possible. “Wagner is not for young singers. When I look at where I would eventually like to be, it’s as an international singer in some of the roles he created.
“I would also love to open my own school and have my own competitions. I was lucky enough to get grants in aid of my studies, but there are not enough bursaries in general. Apart from the honour of winning a prestigious contest, the money that comes with it is incentive money and is important to keep passion in youngsters alive.”
“I just am fascinated by other female artists, probably because I feel a kinship with them, no matter who they are and what they do.” – Shirley Manson, Scottish singer, composer and actress