Lulama Taifasi

Lulama Taifasi is a 29 year old (27/12/1993)  tenor from the Eastern Cape whose talent was recognized by Maestro Kamal  Khan, previous head of the UCT Opera School, SA College of Music. Lulama  attended classes with Hanna and Albie van Schalkwyk, Grant McLachlan and  Italian classes at the Italian School Dante Alighieri in Cape Town. Apart  from concerts at the Italian Consulate in Cape Town and with the  Musicumbrella Studio, he performed in concerts in Montagu and Swellendam.

He made his opera  debut during the SU Toyota Woordfees in the role of Gastone in Verdi’s La  Traviata with Mamre Opera performing in Darling (2019) and the Endler Hall in  Stellenbosch (2020). He performed with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra  under the baton of Brandon Phillips at Artscape as part of a concert  broadcast on television (2020) and took part in the 50th Youth Classical  Music Concert in Artscape in 2021.

In April 2021 he  obtained his Level 4 Diploma in Music Performance (Singing) from Trinity College  in London with distinction. He joined the Accademia del Maggio Musicale  Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, in November 2021 where he is in the Young  Artists Programme under Mastro Gianni Tangucci. In April 2022 Lulama sang the  role of Benvolio in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet with Juan Diego Florez as Romeo  under the direction of Maestro Henrik Nánási at Accademia del Maggio Musicale  Fiorentino/Opera di Firenze. In May 2022 he sang the role of Fante del  Consiglio de’ Dieci in Verdi’s I due Foscari under the direction of Maestro  Carlo Rizzi with Placido Domingo in the leading role.

In July 2022,  Lulama reached the finals of the “Riccardo Zandonai Competition” in Italy and  won the Opera Sāo Paulo Prize. He was the finalist in  the “XII Concorso Internazionale per Cantanti Lirici” in Pienza. In 2023, he  then won a second prize in the “Concorso Giulio Neri Internazionale Lirico”,  then recently was a finalist in “Concorso Lirico Città d’Alcamo” in Sicily and  he won Two special prizes: “Lyons Club Alcamo” and “Mettiamoci all’Opera”.

He has done  numerous Masterclasses with teachers like, Eva Mei, Sara Mingardo, Bruno De  Simone, Giulio Zappa and Matteo Pais. He has studied the roles: Nemorino – L’elisir  d’amore, Don Ottavio – Don Giovanni and Belmonte – Die  entfürhung auf dem Serail.

His future engagements are: The role of Manfredo in I Vespri  Siciliani at Teatro Regio in Torino (06/07/23). Beginning of August, he  will be part of the OperAvenir Studio in Basel, Switzerland for the next  season.

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