Thandolwethu Mamba ‘20: Italian Opera and Language Program

Summer 2019

About the Artist

I am a senior from eSwatini (formerly known as Swaziland) majoring in Music (Vocal Performance) with minors in Biology and Chemistry. I am a Duke MasterCard Foundation Scholar and a UWC Davis Scholar (I attended UWC Dilijan in Armenia from 2014-2016). Even though I had no intentions of even minoring in Music when I came in 2016, my voice lessons with Susan Tilley (others might know as Susan Dunn) and David Heid, other music classes, e.g. piano and theory, as well being part of the Duke Chorale and Duke Operatic Theater (formerly known as Opera Workshop) gradually inspired me to pursue a major in Music, and this has been one of the best decisions of my life. I started singing in high school in the Swaziland High Schools Choral Music Competition but I wasn’t able to take my first music class until I got to Duke, and haven’t looked back ever since.