Njabulo Madlala was born in Durban, South Africa. In 2002 he won a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama for graduate and postgraduate studies. He went on to study for a further year at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill. Additionally, Njabulo has been a Britten Pears Young Artist, a Samling Artist and a young artist at the Ravinia International Festival in the USA.

Among his accolades Njabulo is the winner of the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Award, 2012 Singers Section Final of the Royal Overseas League Competition, the 2012 Lorna Viol Memorial Prize, the Royal Overseas League Trophy for the most outstanding musician from overseas and Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 2014.

Highlights in recent seasons include his main stage debut at the Royal Opera House in Shostakovich’s The Nose, Schaunard La bohème and Bartolomeo Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo both for English Touring Opera, his Norwegian debut in Orlando Gough’s Voices and Votes for the Bergen National Opera, and a series of Gershwin Concerts for Raymond Gubbay, on tour. In the current season Njabulo will perform a concert of Porgy & Bess in Moscow and further ahead makes his debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, English National Opera and the Dutch National Opera.

Operatic engagements include the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Mid Wales Opera); Don Fernando Fidelio, Bello La fanciulla del West and Schaunard La bohème (all for Opera Holland Park); Master of the Thames Boat Heart of Darkness (Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House); Kammersinger Intermezzo (Buxton Festival Opera); Peachum The Threepenny Opera (Hawaii Performing Arts Festival); Scarpia Tosca (Grange Park Opera’s ‘Rising Stars’); Rangwan in Delius’s Koanga (Sadler’s Wells Theatre); Don Giulio in Rossini’s L’ajo nell’imbarazzo (Barga International Festival) and Mel in Tippett’s The Knot Garden (Montepulciano Festival); Escamillo (Winslow Hall Opera) and Moralès Carmen (Dorset Opera Festival) and Porgy Porgy and Bess at the Cheltenham Festival.

In recital Njabulo has performed with Roger Vignoles (Cambridge Festival and Lugo Festival in Spain), Julius Drake (Mananan Festival), Williams Vann (Oxford Lieder Festival & Ripon International Festival), Simon Lepper (Wigmore Hall Monday Concert Series and Buxton Festival), Llŷr Williams (Gower Festival) and with James Baillieu (Lake District Music Festival). His debut CDSongs of Home was released in autumn 2013 on the Champs Hill Records label.

Concert highlights include Mozart Requiem (English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra); Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski); Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra); Belshazzar’s Feast at the Three Choirs Festival (Philharmonia Orchestra) and Royal Festival Hall (Royal PhilharmonicOrchestra); Messiah (Philharmonia Orchestra); Elijah at the Snape Maltings; J. S. Bach Ich habe genug (Ten Tors Orchestra); Dido and Aeneas at (Wimbledon International Music Festival) and concerts with the KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra under Arjan Tien and Richard Cock.