Uitenhage born Lusibalwethu Sesanti has been immersed in the world of opera and choral music from the age of 6 years old. Having grown up watching her mother conduct and coach for the South African Schools Choral Eisteddfods, Sesanti herself started vocal training with Sonja van Amstel at Rhenish Girls High School (2010-14). There, she achieved top honours at various singing Eisteddfods. Sesanti won the Mabel Quick Singing Competition in 2015, aged 19.In addition, Sesanti was a prizewinner in the ATKV ​Muziqanto ​competition (2018), and was both a semi-finalist and finalist in the Mezzo Soprano Opera aria and Indigenous Art Song categories of the Voices of South Africa International Singing Competition (2020). Her first performance experience in an actual opera was in the university’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro (2015) as well as 2016’s production of Kissing with Coffee, under director Johannes van Staden- Slabbert. Sesanti’s performance roles include Miss Todd (​The Old Maid and the Thief), M​opsa (​The Fairy Queen) ​and Umfazi 2 (​Amagokra).​ Sesanti has also toured internationally with the Cape Town Opera chorus for their performances of ​African Passion (T​he Netherlands) and ​Porgy and Bess ​(Germany). Sesanti shows a keen interest in jazz music, theatre and composition, having worked with artists such as Mandla Mlangeni, Dizu Plaatjies, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Mandla Mbothwe, KOMPOS and the Magnet Theatre, to name a few. 2017 saw her debut as an oratorio soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Canticum Novum. Sesanti is an avid promoter of South African indigenous art song performance, for which she is gaining recognition. Sesanti is currently completing her final year of studies towards a BMus in Performance, under Minette du Toit-Pearce.

Portuguese-born José Dias is a regular presence in all major concert halls and Arts Festivals in South Africa. In recent seasons, international performances have taken him to Portugal, Mozambique, Israel, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, including extensive tours of the Netherlands and Germany, with repeated appearances in such historic halls as the Berliner Philharmonie, Münchner Philharmonie, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, among many others. José is in high demand as soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist and coach, and has also been the musical director of Cape Town Opera’s internationally acclaimed touring productions African Angels and African Passion, as well as Biblioteek Productions’ operatic productions such as Poskantoor, La Voix Humaine and The Recycled Magic Flute. Recently he also wrote new music and took the musical direction of Piekniek by Mpande, a modern day reimagining of the seminal Afrikaans protest cabaret Piekniek by Dingaan as well as the 2019 Fleur du Cap Awards Ceremony, at the Artscape Opera House. These productions and his involvement therein, have made him the recipient of several awards, from festivals such as Woordfees, KKNK, Aardklop, as well as Fiësta and Fleur du Cap Awards. He was co-creator and curator of the RISE concert series in collaboration with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra – a platform for the display of young SA classical talent – and is also an avid supporter of contemporary music, having premiered several works by composers such as Hendrik Hofmeyr, Alexander Johnson and Conrad Asman. Many of these (some written especially for him) have been recorded and are available on CD.