Drakensberg Boys Choir School is a choir school located near Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, at the foot of the Central Drakensberg mountain range. Performing in a variety of genres such as jazz, pop and African music, the choir is based in South Africa but also tours internationally.

Organisation

The school was established in 1967 by John Tungay with assistance from his family. Typically, enrollment is about 120 boys, all aged 9 to 15. The school admitted its first black student in 1988, six years before the end of Apartheid. It has an extensive campus, including a 600-seat auditorium constructed in 1995, and holds weekly concerts for the local population. The Choir has toured internationally.

Concert tours

The choir has presented concerts in the United States and across Europe and, by Papal request, at the Vatican City. They have also performed with South Korean artist Lee Moon-se. Every year, boys from the choir embark on an international tour. Recent locations for tours have included the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. While on tour, they often collaborate with other local youth choirs.

Notable alumni

The Bala Brothers, the South African vocal trio, attended Drakensberg Boys Choir School in the 1980s and 90s. In 1988, six years before the end of Apartheid, the oldest brother, Zwai, was the first black student admitted to the school. Jean-Philip Grobler, an indie electronic

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

artist, sang in the Drakensberg Boys' Choir before moving to

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to make music as St. Lucia. Ralph Schmidt went on to become the director of the Mzansi Youth Choir, which appeared in

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Notes

References

''Concert Review - Drakensberg Boys Choir - U.S. 3/2007''
reviews by Lynn Schoch and Gene Hickman, ChoirBase * J. B. Lan (Jiří Bulan)

2008 May 6, in Czech about the first Czech member of the school, in English about the school

Discover Our Drakensberg – Your Guide to the Drakensberg Mountains and Natal Midlands.

External links

* {{Authority control Boys' schools in South Africa Boarding schools in South Africa Nondenominational Christian schools in South Africa Choir schools Educational institutions established in 1967 1967 establishments in South Africa Private schools in KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg