Lwanda Gogwana

Lwanda was born in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, the home of the Ama-Xhosa.

He started his musical career at school, singing in school choirs, and taking lessons in both piano and trumpet. During his high school period, he toured Namibia and UK, whilst playing in a number of national youth bands of South Africa.

He enrolled at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2005 for a Bachelor of music degree in composition and arrangement under Prof Peter Klatzow and Prof Mike Campbell, and received scholarship to study in Norway, Europe on exchange at the Norges Musikkhogskole based at the University of Oslo.

During his professional career, he has played, & at most times composed for a number of artists and bands in South Africa, including the UCT big band, Abdullah Ibrahim’s Cape Town Jazz Orchestra, Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band of 2007, the Tete Mbambisa band, Bokani Dyer, Lulama Gaulana, Simphiwe Dana, Neo Muyanga, Jimmy Dludlu, Steve Dyer, Moreira Chonguica, Ezra Ngcukana, Errol Dyers, Tete Mbambisa, Robbie Jansen, Bruce Cassidy, John Fedchock, Thandi Klaasen, Judith Sephuma, Marcus Wyatt, Nomfusi, Buddy Wells and Max Vidima and his very own composition based project, The Lwanda Gogwana Songbook.

Having played at many festivals, including the Cape Town International Jazz festival, The Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg, The National Youth Jazz festival in Grahamstown, the Wigan Jazz Festival in England, still today, Lwanda continues to perform in and out of South Africa.

Lwanda has also been involved in a couple of community building projects, including teaching and conducting workshops in and around Cape Town, and is also part of a youth run organization, RYTHM (reaching youth through music) that aims at promoting South African music to the youth.

The Lwanda Gogwana Songbook received a sponsorship from SABC RBF to record album, which gave birth to their debut release, Chapter 1, released in November 2011. It features among others, Jimmy Dludlu, Moreira Chonguica, Buddy Wells, John Hassan, Mthwakazi, Julio Sigauque, Bokani Dyer, Sakhile Moleshe and many more!

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