Victor Mecoamere
Victor Mecoamere
The Danish vocal group Papaya is set to surprise local choral music lovers at the Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg on November 9.
Tickets for the 2008 Transnet Foundation, SABC and Sowetan Massed Choir Festival go on sale next month.
Consisting of 19 members who had been the 2001 festival guest choir, the group has been to these shores for other engagements three times since then.
They sing South African songs in isiZulu, isiXhosa and Sesotho, and even dance and move like South Africans.
Formed in 1986, Papaya's original repertoire consisted mainly of music from Tanzania and other east African countries, but additional fare came from South Africa from 1996.
Papaya will share the stage with:
l Bonisudumo Choristers;
l East Rand Chorale;
l Kathorus Choristers;
l Mogale City Chorale;
l Soweto Songsters;
l Vaal Choristers;
l African Sweet Melodies;
l Gauteng SAPS Choir;
l Mangaung SAPS Choir from Free State;
l Gauteng Choristers;
l SABC Choir;
l Amazwi KaNtu Choir
l Garankuwa Community Choir;
l Mamelodi Philharmonic Chorus;
l Shalom Chorale;
l Mvezo Community Choir from Eastern Cape; Manzini Symphony Chorus from Swaziland; and
l Chitungwiza Harmony Singers from Zimbabwe.
Magangane and Pooe, with Mokale Koapeng, Thabiso Mosabala and Thulasizwe Nkabinde will conduct the choirs.