Soweto String Quartet

Emerging in the closing years of the 1980s, the Soweto String Quartet coalesced around the three Khemese brothers—violinists Sandile and Thami together with cellist Reuben. Born to a father who conducted and a mother devoted to choral singing, the siblings studied at their uncle’s township music school, after which Sandile and Reuben both played violin in the Soweto Symphony Orchestra. In the early 1980s Sandile pursued further training in Britain, completing a four-year course at Manchester’s Royal North College of Music; once back in South Africa he joined the faculty of the Madimba School of Music and established the quartet in 1989. The lineup was completed by longtime family friend Makhosini Mguni on viola. Although initial domestic reaction questioned the group’s reliance on conventional European instruments, the ensemble gradually incorporated indigenous African rhythms and melodic inflections while also exploring guitars, keyboards, and drums. Growing national recognition led to a nine-month engagement at Sun City, where BMG Records producer Grahame Beggs first encountered them; their debut release for the label, Zebra Crossing, arrived in mid-1998 and was followed a year later by Renaissance.