Sabelo Mthembu was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1983. A singer, conductor and composer, he began his music career at church at a very young age. His love for choral music saw him grow his skill as a conductor and music director. After leaving the University of Johannesburg Choir in 2008, he co-founded an ensemble called Quava Vocal Group. Since its formation, the choir has grown from strength to strength and from only having 6 singers to now 35 strong singers. The choir has won numerous local and international accolades, among which are gold medals in the 2018 world choir games and most recently two gold medals at the Interkultur World Choral Cup choir competition held in Spain in October 2022. At the World Choral Cup competition, Sabelo was awarded the best conductor prize.
In 2008 he won the 2nd prize in the choral composition competition for young composers sponsored by Old Mutual and Sowetan. In July 2018 he was awarded his first ever international composition competition award when he came 3rd in the Busan Festival Choral Composition Competition in South Korea.
Sabelo is also a jazz and African music singer. Songs of Brotherhood, his debut album project, was released in February 2013. In 2015, his single Angiphili Mawungekho peaked at number 2 on the iTunes SA Jazz Charts and the album was on the top 100 favourite albums on iTunes SA Jazz in 2017. Besides making music, Sabelo enjoys long distance running. He completed 6 comrades marathons, an ultra marathon of 90km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, South Africa. He is married to Innocentia Mthembu and together they have three daughters, Liyanda, Hannah and Ntando Mthembu.
Sabelo Mthembu is a singer, conductor and composer, he began his music career at church at a very young age. His love for choral music saw him grow his skill as a conductor and music director. After leaving the University of Johannesburg Choir in 2008, he co-founded an ensemble called Quava Vocal Group. The choir has won numerous local and international accolades, among which are gold medals in the 2018 world choir games and most recently two gold medals at the Interkultur World Choral Cup choir competition 2022 where he was also awarded with the best conductor prize.
