Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi is a creative musician, who uses his art and exhibitions in order to convey African stories/philosophies. He plays the baroque cello, sings and compose his own music. Born in Madadeni, KwaZulu-Natal, after fulfilling music studies in South Africa & Sweden, Mhlambi received his PhD in Music at the University of Cape Town. In South Africa, he has showcased work at leading platforms such as the Linder Auditorium, National Arts Festival and Soweto Theatre. He has also been a visiting lecturer at universities in Finland (Jyvaskyla), and Brazil, to mention a few. And has had opportunities to perform and speak in places such as Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans (Tulane), São Paulo, Maputo (Mozambique), Tunisia and New York.

Recently, Mhlambi’s rendition of Lizalise Idinga Lakho by Tiyo Soga (from his debut album Zulu Song Cycle), was featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mhlambi was an invited contributor to the roaming academy of the Dutch Art Institute, an itinerant program fostering various creative practices at the intersection of art & theory. In 2019, he collaborated with revered Chinese visual artist Dachan, in a live performance/installation at the Zeitz Mocca Museum in Cape Town. In 2020, Mhlambi was selected as an Artist-in-Residence at Cite International Des Arts in Paris, supported by the Institute Français. In 2021, Mhlambi contributed a sound piece called “Playing with Tape” as part of a group exhibition “Here History Began. Tracing the Reverberations of Halim El-dabh,” which took place at the Savvy Contemporary in Berlin. The piece was composed from a soundscape of the Durban beachfront. In 2022, Mhlambi had a chance to participate in a series of improvisational experiments with USA-based musicians, including Angel Bat Dawid, Mankwe Ndosi and Douglas R Ewart—a long time member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a Chicago music movement founded in the 1960s, whose members combine avant-garde jazz, folk musics, classical music to create unique sounds.

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