South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha was born in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo province, and began singing in school and church. Music in her childhood meant worship songs and the gospel performers she and her siblings watched on television; she had never met a professional singer. As she has said, the family had to travel 45 minutes to town to find a piano, and she first properly touched one after enrolling in her music degree at 19.
She studied at Tshwane University of Technology (BTech in Vocal Art, with Kiewiet Pali) and the University of Cape Town (Postgraduate Diploma, with Virginia Davids), and spent two years as a Young Artist with Cape Town Opera, singing First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Mother of Mandela in Mandela Trilogy and Serena in Porgy and Bess.
In 2016, in her early days, Masabane worked for St George’s Church, Parktown, Johannesburg, and took part in a charity opera evening in aid of children diagnosed with cancer. Alongside highly acclaimed professional singers, she mesmerised the audience. Roy J. Thomas, who organised and compered the evening, said: “I will never forget the faces of the audience that evening. Her transcendental voice was born for a greater stage; it is now a voice and presence shared with the world. Masabane conquers hearts and minds wherever she performs, but it all started in front of those who cared for children — doctors and nurses, some hearing arias for the first time — and the congregation of a fine place of worship. It was the voice that mesmerised them, as it does today to critical acclaim.”
In 2019 she won the Audience Award and two special prizes at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and joined the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Programme for the 2019/20 season, where roles included Susanna and Liù. In October 2020 she took part in the Royal Opera House’s streamed masterclass series with Sir Antonio Pappano, who remarked that her vocal mastery left him little to teach.
International recognition followed in 2021 when she won the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World — the first African to do so — and reached the main final. From 2021 to 2023 she was a member of the Bern Staatsoper ensemble. She was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2023), sang the soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem at the First Night of the BBC Proms in 2022, and received the Herbert von Karajan Prize in 2024.
2025/26 season
Masabane made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot in September 2025 and reprised the role at the Royal Ballet & Opera in December under Daniel Oren, alongside Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov. She sang at the gala opening of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025 with the Johannesburg Chamber Orchestra (Kutlwano Masote). In June 2026 she made her role debut as Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Ballet & Opera (Sir David McVicar’s production, conducted by Bertrand de Billy), having first sung the role in concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Rafael Payare).
Concert debuts included the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Elim Chan), the London Philharmonic in Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony (Sir Mark Elder), the Philharmonia Orchestra (Thomas Søndergård) and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Kevin John Edusei) in Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Jiří Rožeň).
2026/27 season
The season opened in Sevilla with Verdi’s Requiem for the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla under Lucas Macías at the Teatro de la Maestranza. Highlights ahead include her debut with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and, in November 2026, her debut with Detroit Opera and worldwide role debut as Floria Tosca, with Nathan Granner as Cavaradossi and Alfred Walker as Scarpia.
Previous seasons
Masabane has sung Verdi’s Requiem with the Bergen Philharmonic (Jader Bignamini), the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Wiener Konzerthaus (Daniel Harding), and at the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden (Leo McFall); Beethoven’s Ninth with the Munich Philharmonic (Nicholas Collon); Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with the Teatro Regio Torino (James Conlon); and Vier letzte Lieder with the São Paulo Symphony (Thierry Fischer), Cincinnati Symphony (Giancarlo Guerrero) and Cape Town Philharmonic (Kamal Khan). Other engagements include the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, Mahler’s Second with the Hallé (Kahchun Wong), Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (Dinis Sousa) and the London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Antonio Pappano), Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Oxford Philharmonic and the LSO, and A Sea Symphony with the LSO (Pappano).
Her debut solo album, Masabane, was released by Rubicon Classics in February 2025: South African song, spirituals, lieder, chanson and opera, recorded at Abbey Road Studios with pianist Aron Goldin.
Masabane lives in Switzerland. She is married to Mvano Mgam; their son, Sisanda, was born in 2025.
Short biography
South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha won the Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021 and the Herbert von Karajan Prize 2024, and was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. A former Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Liù (Turandot) in 2025 and her role debut as the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) at Covent Garden in 2026. Concert engagements include the LSO, LA Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Santa Cecilia and Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla. Her debut album, Masabane, is on Rubicon Classics.
