Nomfundo Xaluva, who released her third album independently, shared her journey with media veteran Ryland Fisher on the Crossing the Line podcast.
Nomfundo Xaluva remembers the first time she saw a piano at a friend’s house when she was still at primary school and fell in love with the instrument. Years later, after classical training in both piano and voice, she is one of the country’s foremost jazz singers who has won several awards and performs to packed houses throughout the country.
Xaluva, who released her third album independently, shared her journey with media veteran Ryland Fisher on the Crossing the Line podcast. IOL has a partnership with the podcast and helps to promote it.
“I grew up in a musical family in Port Elizabeth,” said Xaluva, “I was raised by my grandparents and my grandfather was an avid jazz fan and collector of jazz vinyls.
“However, I went to boarding school in Grahamstown [now Makanda] when I was in Grade 5. I began classical training in piano at an early age and in voice when I was a teenager. As much as I studied jazz at university, the classical training will always be the foundation of the instrument and its technique. The repertoire and the style might be jazz, but the actual vocal technique and the way I use my voice in different ways is very much in a classically grounded style.”
