Pumeza Matshikiza was born in 1979 and trained at the University of Cape Town College of Music before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London and joining the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 2007 to 2009. She has been a full-time ensemble member at Stuttgart Opera since 2011.

Matshikiza won the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition in Dublin in 2010 and the South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award in 2011, and signed with Decca Records in 2013, releasing the album Voice of Hope (2014), recorded at Abbey Road Studios, which blends classical arias with African music. She performed at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games before an audience of roughly one billion, and sang at the 2011 royal wedding of Prince Albert II of Monaco.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumeza_Matshikiza