Thapelo Masita uses his music to help amplify the visibility of artists in his home country of South Africa. Masita was recently invited to performed in recital for MetLiveArts at The Met Cloisters featuring Bach’s First Cello suite in conversation with Negro spirituals, South African hymns, the work of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. His playing regarded as “assured, his face aspiration[al], imploring” (Bachtrack.com) Masita won 2nd prize the 2021 UNISA National String Competition and has performed as soloist with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and is a frequent guest musician with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Masita has collaborated with world-class artists such as Agustin Hadelich, Anna Klein, Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw, among others. He a sought-after chamber musician and is a founding member of the Uhuru String Quartet, which seeks empower women who are survivors of domestic abuse and homelessness through artistic collaborations and performance.

 

Masita is the founder and executive director of the Bokamoso International Chamber Music Festival and Workshop in South Africa, which aims to share the joys of music with local communities while providing high level training to promising youths from around the country. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School, and is in pursuit of a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at CUNY Graduate Center where he works with Julia Lichten. He performs on a cello made by Oded Kishony, on generous loan to him by the Virtu Foundation.