Opera sensation sings way to graduation stage
● Sazi Gcaba awarded Bachelor of Music degree by University of Fort Hare
His baritone voice has earned him the top spot in several international opera competitions and he has performed for President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This week, the University of Fort Hare’s opera sensation, Sazi “Dimitri” Gcaba, 24, was awarded his Bachelor of Music degree.
Born in Cape Town, he moved with his family to the Eastern Cape in 2014 and started singing as a 16-year-old.
He rose to stardom in his second year of studies at the UFH music department when, after several rounds of judging by opera maestros such as the now late Sibongile Khumalo, Andrew Staples and Marsha Thompson, he was announced as the winner of the Londonbased Voices of SA International Opera 2020 online competition in the under-22 category.
The victory was his first in a host of international opera competitions.
Gcaba was the winner, in the emerging artist category, of the 2021 Aspiring Opera Singing Voice Competition a US-based contest in which he was selected from among 121 music students worldwide who submitted pre-recorded auditions.
He was also victorious in the 2021 Online London International Music Competition, the 2022 Medici International, and the 2023 Birmingham International Music Competition.
In April last year, he was selected to join 20 opera singers from across the world in an international fundraising event for victims of the Ukraine war.
The Artist for Peace production was organised by Opera Cecilia, an international opera company.
“I started singing when I was in grade 9, back in 2014,” Gcaba, the third of five children, said.
“I only started getting vocal training when I entered university in 2019. Opera music comforts, inspires and reminds us that we’re not alone in our trials, but it also gives us the hope to overcome, and the fuel to drive people forward in even the darkest of times.
“Opera allows us to experience emotional and imaginative truths and share profound and transformative cultural experiences.”
He said his time at Fort Hare had been the highlight of his life.
“I enrolled in 2019 and a year later I was already singing and winning on international stages.
“Amazingly, I went on to perform and win four more international competitions.”
Last year, during the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between the ANC and UFH at the De Beers Art Gallery, he performed for Ramaphosa, delivering a rendition of Ngabe Kwenzenjani — about the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising.
“I do not know how many times I have relived this moment in my life where I performed in a room full of people, and among the audience was the president of the country.
“I will forever cherish that moment,” he said.
Gcaba said he owed his success to several people who had supported him, including his grade 9 music teacher, who recognised his talent.
At Fort Hare, he found three father figures who shaped his singing career — Tamsanqa Ncokwana, his voice trainer; Ndumiso Mtshali, an ethnomusicologist and music lecturer; and the former head of the music department, Nduduzo Makhathini, a worldrenowned multi-award-winning jazz maestro.
“I learnt from them. I learnt from the best.”
Gcaba is at present participating in the Virtuoso International Music Competition.
He said he planned to enrol at the University of Cape Town Opera School next year, a step that he believed would unlock his future aspirations to study overseas and become a global opera singer.
“Currently, I’m working on trying to make money since I’m planning to further my studies.
“Doing what I’m doing in our country is very difficult and it requires hard work.
“From next year, I’m looking to go abroad to sing in the most prestigious opera houses in the world.
“I want to be one of the best young emerging artists, and I want to lift the SA flag high.”