20 South African composers

Michael Blake is a South African contemporary classical music composer and performer. He studied in Johannesburg in the 1970s and was associated with conceptual art and the emergence of an indigenous experimental music aesthetic. In 1976 he embarked on 'African Journal', a series of pieces for Western instruments that drew on his studies of traditional African music and aesthetics, which continued to expand during two decades in London until he returned to South Africa in 1998. From around 2000 African music becomes less explicit on the surface of his compositions, but elements of rhythm and repetition remain as part of a more postcolonial engagement with material and form. He works in a range of styles including minimalism and collage, and now also forages for source material from the entire musical canon.

David Earl is a South African composer and pianist. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys' High School. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen when he broadcast Bach, Chopin and Chabrier on the SABC. In 1968, he performed Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No 1 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, he moved to London where he studied at Trinity College of Music. He studied under Jacob Kaletsky and Richard Arnell. After a live début broadcast recital on BBC Radio 3 in 1974, his first recital at Wigmore Hall was reported as "stylish and powerful" by The Times. In 1975, he was selected as one the Young Musicians of the Year by the Greater London Arts Association. He also won first prize in the 1976 SABC Piano Competition. He was described by the Daily Telegraph as having "remarkable gifts of style, technical mastery and artistry". He made his début as a composer in the 1977 when he premiered his own Piano Suite No 1 Mosaics at Wigmore Hall. His concerto repertoire includes the Viennese classics, many from the nineteenth century, and amongst those from the 20th, the piano concertos of Arthur Bliss and John Joubert, both of which he studied with the composers. Conductors he has appeared with include Hugo Rignold, Maurice Handford, Piero Gamba and Christian Badea.

Cromwell Everson was primarily known as a composer during his lifetime. He was brought up as an Afrikaner by his mother, Maria De Wit and father, Robert Everson. He continued this tradition and all his children were brought up as Afrikaners.

Hubert du Plessis was a South African composer, pianist, and professor of music whose career spanned several decades. Along with Arnold van Wyk and Stefans Grové, du Plessis was one of the foremost South African composers of the 20th century.

John Pierre Herman Joubert was a British composer of South African birth, particularly of choral works. He lived in Moseley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, for over 50 years. A music academic in the universities of Hull and Birmingham for 36 years, Joubert took early retirement in 1986 to concentrate on composing and remained active into his eighties. Though perhaps best known for his choral music, particularly the carols Torches and There is No Rose of Such Virtue and the anthem O Lorde, the Maker of Al Thing, Joubert composed over 160 works including three symphonies, four concertos and seven operas.

David Kramer is a South African singer, songwriter, playwright and director, most notable for his musicals about the Cape Coloured communities, and for his early opposition to apartheid.

Solomon Popoli Linda, also known as Solomon Ntsele, was a South African musician, singer and composer best known as the composer of the song "Mbube", which later became the popular music success "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and gave its name to the Mbube style of isicathamiya a cappella later popularized by Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Philip Miller is a South African, international composer and sound artist based in Cape Town. His work is multi-faceted, often developing from collaborative projects in theatre, film, video and sound installations.

Seth Mokitimi (1904–1971) was a significant leader in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) during the 20th century. He fostered the development of education, especially theological education, and promoted the use of education as a tool in the struggle for liberation from apartheid in South Africa. Seth Mokitimi was also influential in the youthful development of several important South African leaders, among them Nelson Mandela. In 1963 the MCSA annual Conference elected Rev. Seth Mokitimi as their first black president, in which position he served one term during 1964 and 1965.At the MCSA Conference of 2007, 36 years after his death, a proposal that the new Methodist Seminary to be built at Pietermaritzburg be named after Seth Mokitimi was approved with "overwhelming enthusiasm".

Eike Moriz, better known as Ike Moriz, is a German-South African singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. He has released 20 albums in the indie rock, pop, latin, easy listening, dance, lounge, blues, jazz and swing genres.

Ivy Priaulx Rainier was a South African-British composer. Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from her childhood. She never adopted 12-tone or serial techniques, but her music shows a profound understanding of that musical language. She can be credited with the first truly athematic works composed in England. Her Cello Concerto was premiered by Jacqueline du Pré in 1964, and her Violin Concerto Due Canti e Finale was premiered by Yehudi Menuhin in 1977.

Melanie Scholtz was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a vocalist. She sings operas, jazz, pop, R&B and classical music. She is a classically trained Opera singer, a songwriter, music teacher, composer, and a dancer. She attended the Opera School, in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated cum laude in 2000. Her band is called 'Love Apples'. She performs in her country, South Africa, and she has performed in Czech Republic, Germany, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, France, Italy, Russia, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, and the United States of America. Melanie incorporates her South African Folk music as well as her mother tongue 'Xhosa' language click sounds and rhythms.

John Simon is a South African born British classical music composer.

Eugene Skeef FRSA is a South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and animator living in London since 1980. He also works in conflict resolution, acts as a consultant on cultural development, teaches creative leadership and is a broadcaster. In 2003 he founded Umoya Creations, a charity set up to facilitate this international work.

Dihan Slabbert, is a South African singer, performer, composer, producer, musician, and songwriter. He is best known as one of the lead vocalists in the South African pop group, Hi-5.

Enoch Mankayi Sontonga was a South African composer, who is best known for writing the song "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika", which, in abbreviated version, has been sung as the first half of the National anthem of South Africa since 1994. Previously, it had been the official anthem of the African National Congress since 1925.

Warrick Sony is a South African composer, producer, musician and sound designer. He was born Warrick Swinney in Port Elizabeth, in 1958.

Clem Tholet was a Rhodesian folk singer who became popular in the 1970s for his Rhodesian patriotic songs. He reached the height of his fame during the Rhodesian Bush War.

Kevin Volans is a South African born Irish composer and pianist. He studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in Cologne in the 1970s and later became associated with the Neue Einfacheit movement in the city. In the late 1970s he became interested in the indigenous music of his homeland and began a series of pieces which attempted to combine aspects of African and contemporary European music. Although Volans later moved away from any direct engagement with African music, certain residual elements such as interlocking rhythms, repetition and open forms are still detectable in his music since the early 1990s which takes a new direction more redolent of certain schools of abstract art. He settled in Ireland permanently in 1986 and was granted Irish citizenship in 1995.

Dimitri Voudouris, is an electroacoustic, new music composer, scientific researcher and pharmacist living in South Africa who pioneered UNYAZI, the first electronic music festival and symposium on the African continent in 2005 that took place at University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He lectures part-time at Witwatersrand University in electronic music composition.