NYC CHORISTERS SCORES BERKLEE COLLEGE ENROLMENT

BY ERIC MATOME KGOMO
Four members of the renowned South African mass choir, Ndlovu Youth Choir (NYC), have taken truly taken the Nelson Mandela phrase, “Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world”, to the whole other level.
The NYC choristers, Sandile Majola, Sipho Hleza, Thulisile Masanabo and Lungelo Masango enrolled with the best music college in the world, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA).
Majola is studying towards a degree in music Business Management and Hleza is doing Live sound recording and mixing degree. Both Masanabo and Masango are studying music production fundamental for song writers degree.
According to Majola, who is also NYC Manager, the enrolment is the start of a musical partnership journey between the NYC and Breklee College.
“The agreement with Berklee College is that we will be sending more of our members to further their studies in various fields of music, to forge on to global success in the industry. The long-term plan is for the college to open a campus in South Africa,” he said.
Majola added that they were encouraged to study different courses as they have different interests in the music industry per choir member.
“We want to form a team that will make an impact in the music space, which is the reason making us to follow different careers in music with the college. Everyone should contribute differently in the group, that’s what we want,” he said.
Despite enjoying being part of the best music college in the world, Majola said they are still facing biggest challenges including different time zones and the never ending power cuts in the country.
“We are ahead to the USA with about six hours, meaning you have to attend online courses throughout the night which is challenging sometimes. But we have adapted to the system and coping. The difficulty is when we are caught by load shedding, you can’t do anything at the time,” he said.
Majola added by stating toil and turmoil brought by the impact of Covid-19, saying they have severely impacted the livelihoods of their members. “The past year and a half has been difficult to our members because there is no income as the shows are currently prohibited. The choir comprises of the orphans who are breadwinners supporting their siblings and their situation is worsening since we no longer have performances these days,” he said.
NYC is became the first African participants to reach the finals of America’s Got Talent and finished in the bottom five of the top ten in the biggest stage talent search show in the world.