LiSwati singer in Dallas Opera
“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do, and then do it.”
+(15< )25' ± MBABANE – The sky is the limit.
)rom the dusty streets of Siteki to the world, liSwati born opera sing er 3rosper Makhanya has hoisted the country’s flag in the United States US).
Makhanya has officially con firmed being part of The Dallas 2pera, which is a world class performing arts organisation pro ducing outstanding main stage and chamber opera repertoire at tracting national and international attention.
The Dallas 2pera has the highest possible standards of artistic e[ cellence, accountability, efficiency and financial sustainability.
In an interview with the publi cation, Makhanya shared his grat itude and how he managed to get the opportunity of performing on one of the well known stages in the United States.
³Through capable management and career guidance from my mentor, 3hilani Mpanza, I have been fortunate to receive several talent based scholarships which continue making my artistic and scholarly journey a breeze.
Classical
The first one awarded through successful participation in the U1IS$ Classical Music Singing Competition in 20 , in which a talent scout and judge from South ern Methodist University, Te[as, US saw my talent reached out to, I initiated my studies towards a Diploma in Music and as they say the rest is history,´ he said.
Makhanya went on to share his educational bakground that landed him a role at The Dallas 2pera.
³$rriving in the United States, I have done my best to stay shining both in class and on stage success which saw me receive a double academic e[cellence based schol arship to study towards an M.Sc (nvironmental (ngineering cur rently underway) and a Master of %usiness $dministration starting late 2022) soon as I finished my Diploma in 2020, all while singing at some of the US’s biggest stag es, part of which includes singing at Dallas 2pera this year,´ he said.
:hen asked about his e[peri ence, Makhanya said every oppor tunity was a blessing.
³The journey is an entire ency clopedia of life changing e[peri ences with each stage a blessing. I remain honoured to be a part of stage with international acts.
³ The opera house debuts hum ble me a lot and remind me to keep working hard sharing the stage with singers I admired long before my own journey started is something I truly can’t put in words.
³The competitions put me against some of the world’s finest young singers and coming out tops among them is always inspiring to me.
³It is a constant reminder of what a talented country I come from, and with proper support, capable of producing and sending out to the world many potential world beat ers as consistently proven by my other brothers in the game Thando =wane and Lwazi Dlamini, over all, I am just a happy torch bearer of what we possess as the youth of (swatini,´ he added.
(swatini 1ational Choral Music $ssociation (1CM$) Chairper son Sihle *umbi said these news were great for the whole of (swa tini.
Project
³The choral music fraternity is very proud of 3rosper. Solo partic ipants always shine and I can con fidently say that as an association we are working on doing some thing for singers. I cannot get to the merits of the upcoming project, but we are working on something with the assistance of (swatini 1a tional Council of $rts and Culture (1C$C),´ said *umbi. Makhanya is not the first liSwati to hoist the country’s flag in opera music.Thando =wane has brought back home a number of titles in cluding the best $udience 3rize from the Les $zuriales 2pera In ternational 20 2pera Singing Competition’ in )rance and Lwazi Dlamini has been to %erlin 2pera $cademy for the opera festival in *ermany to mention a few.