LISTEN: TUT’s staff member moves people with his voice
“Wherever he performs, people are amazed by his natural talent and immediately fall in love with his lyrical baritone voice,” Ruyter said.
Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) self-taught opera singer Lebogang Rampou (35) is moving people in Pretoria with his voice.
Rampou is part of the Ga-Rankuwa Campus’ Moving team and a member of TUT.
TUT spokesperson Willa de Ruyter said Rampou’s talents extended far further than those listed on his job profile.
“Wherever he performs, people are amazed by his natural talent and immediately fall in love with his lyrical baritone voice,” Ruyter said.
She said although he had sung from a young age, it was at the Modiri High School in Ga-Rankuwa where his geography teacher and school choir conductor at the time, Sheila Motshwane, heard him sing for the first time.
She was moved by his voice and encouraged him to join the school choir and to enter singing competitions.
Rampou said he recalled how Motshwane even asked him to move into her house to practice non-stop for two weeks, prior to the first competition he entered. He had to sing Mozart’s Madamina from the opera Don Giovanni.
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“It was the first time that I had to sing in Italian. I remember being very anxious and had to Google the storyline so that my facial expressions could at least suit the emotions of the song.”
He reaped the rewards of his efforts when he came first in the first and second rounds of the competition. He ended second in the third round, where he was beaten by tenor, Owen Metsileng.
Metsileng progressed to the finals where he came third. He has since progressed to be a very successful opera singer and currently performs in Europe.
Rampou said due to financial constraints “I unfortunately never got the opportunity to study music full-time”.
He had to provide for his entire family, which meant he had to start working after completing his matric.
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“I first worked at a butchery and later on, at a construction company.”
Rampou said in 2011, he joined TUT and was later on insourced as a cleaner in 2016, and then promoted to a member of the Moving team at the Ga-Rankuwa campus last year.
“My fellow staff members love and support my singing. I usually sing while I’m working. One of my colleagues has even booked me for a private performance at her house.”
He said in addition to being part of the TUT Ga-Rankuwa campus choir, he was also a member of the Kopano Chorus, a group of about 90 singers who have performed at the South African State Theatre, among others in Madiba, The African Opera.
Rampou said he also played the jembe (a rope-tuned skin-covered goblet drum played with bare hands).
His favourite composer is Mozart and he is a big fan of Luciano Pavarotti, who eventually became one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time.
Rampou dreams of studying vocal art full-time and on this journey has already approached staff members of the TUT’s vocal art programme for some voice lessons.
“Working at a people’s university, I would like to stage a small concert for staff members to show them the phenomenal power of music that can bring people together. Music is not only entertainment. When I sing opera, I feel connected to God,” he said.
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