Yolisa Ngwexana

Yolisa Ngwexana was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa. She recently graduated from Guildhall Artist Masters-performance (opera course) with Distinction, under the guidance of Professor Yvonne Kenny. She is the winner of First, Audience and Signature Foundation prize of the Africa Lyric’s Opera competition that took place in France, Paris in 2024. She was one of the 5 finalists in the Voices of Black Opera competition (VOBO) 2022, which took place at Birmingham Town Hall, UK.
 
Prior to enrolling at NWU in 2019 to study music under Professor Conroy Cupido, she graduated from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) with a Diploma in Biotechnology in 2018.
 
In 2022 she covered the role of Gilda with Opera North in Leeds, United Kingdom and performed two shows of the role at Theatre Royal, Newcastle, UK. She graduated with a Diploma in music (with Distinction) in 2022 and received the NWU Prestigious Award as a top achiever. She also performed Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” with Free State Symphony Orchestra at St. Andrew and St. Michael’s Cathedral in Bloemfontein, South Africa. In May 2022 she was part of the Opera for Peace Academy in Rome, Italy where she took part in Masterclasses with baritone Thomas Hampson and tenor Lawrence Brownlee.
 
Other roles she has sung include the roles of Alcina in Händel’s “Alcina” (Saluzzo Opera Academy) conducted by Dominic Wheeler; Morgana in Händel’s “Alcina” (Guildhall School); Damiana Cisneros in Stephen McNeff’s “A Star Next to the Moon” (world premiere) at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, conducted by Dominic Wheeler; Lauretta in “Gianni Schicchi” (Operatunity, South Africa); Scenes from Die “Zauberflöte”, ”Don Giovanni”, ”Werther”, “Capriccio”, “The Rake’s progress”, “L’enfant et sortiléges” (Guildhall School); “Quicksilver in Lantern Fish” (Guildhall Opera Makers 2023); La fata azzurra (The Blue Fairy) in Ottorino Respighi’s “La bella dormente nel bosco” (Guildhall Autumn double bill opera, 2023).
 
 
Photo Credit: Photograph usage retained by artist