Tenor Thando Mjandana has been named the winner of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Award at the Voice of Black Opera Competition. The prize is awarded for the best performance of a contemporary song or aria by a Black or South Asian Composer, and along with a cash prize, Thando has received a specifically commissioned work for voice and ensemble with The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
Thando Mjandana is an alumnus of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme Anniversary Company at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 2021/22, where he has in Ariodante, Theodora, La traviata, Lohengrin and Samson et Delilah. This season he has performed the world premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas' Sycorax at Bühnen Bern followed by the European premiere of Jeanine Tesori's Blue at Dutch National Opera. He will be singing Tamino in Welsh National Opera's new production of Magic Flute and Nemorino in Longborough Festival Opera's L'elisir d'amore later this season.
Congratulations, Thando!