South Africa Camp 2027
July 17 - August 3, 2027 (18 days)
Accommodations:
Rehearsal week at Dinyala Retreat Centre in Limpopo Province, South Africa, with a performance tour in Limpopo, Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces followingLeaders:
Matlakala Bopape, Patty Cuyler, Carlo Pozzoli and members of the Polokwane ChoralePrice:
- $2800 in 2-person room
- $2200 youth (16-26) discount tuition, in 2-person room
- $3200 for single room accommodations during rehearsal week (limited availability)
Space in the camp is limited to 25 singers.
Not included in the tuition:
- 6-8 meals when you’ll be on your own during the touring portion of the camp;
- any optional, non-group excursions during free time.
This will be Village Harmony’s sixteenth study-performance camp in South Africa and our first time running a completely northeastern tour in ten years. You will come away from your 2-1/2 week adventure with an insider’s understanding of the musical and cultural diversity of South Africa’s premier city. Four local singers will join as full participants and helpers in the camp to add to the musical—and social—experience.
The program’s musical focus will be learning traditional and contemporary South African folk/church songs and dances, including a number of Matlakala’s brilliant arrangements. To add variety to the concert program, Patty and Carlo will also lead the group in a diverse set of other world music
The camp will begin in residence rehearsing at the lodge in Dinyala Nature Reserve, set in the bush of western Limpopo Province and a roughly 5-hour drive east from Johannesburg airport. During our second week we will stay in a combination of home-stays, lodges and hotels, collaborating with local ensembles, visiting schools and taking in the amazing sights and sounds of the South Africa.
Our Dinyala stay will start with long rehearsal days (6-7 hours/day of singing) and self-catered meals. A local professional chef will act as reigning king in the kitchen, with sous-chefs rotating in for each meal from among the participants. Meals will include traditional South African dishes as well as western comfort foods. Later in the week, we will take breaks for nearby excursions.
During our ensuing concert tour we will perform and hold musical exchanges with church, school and prison choirs. While not performing we will be able to choose from myriad excursion options, including hiking in the Polokwane Game Reserve, visiting an elephant rehabilitation centre and a visit to the famed Apartheid Museum near Johannesburg, and a tour of Soweto township.
GETTING THERE
Participants will be responsible for arranging for their own round-trip transportation to Johannesburg. We recommend that you plan to arrive in South Africa at least a day early to help to adjust to the time change. Everyone will be expected to meet at JNB (O.R. Tambo International Airport) mid-morning on July 17 for the roughly 5- hour drive to Dinyala Nature Reserve, our retreat center near Lephalale, Limpopo Province. We will set that time based on people’s actual arrival times.
We will officially finish in the late morning in the Johannesburg/Pretoria area on Tuesday, August 3rd.
Please time your return travel home to depart no earlier than late afternoon on August 3rd. Better yet, team up with other singers to stay on to explore more of South Africa: motor north to Krueger National Park for a safari, for example, or fly down to Cape Town!
Meet the leaders
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Matlakala Bopape
Matlakala Bopape, of Polokwane, South Africa, is the director of internationally-renowned Polokwane Choral Society—a community-based group whose aim is nurturing musical talent in African society.
As a director, Matlakala is committed to drawing out musical excellence from her singers, as well as exposing them to musical cultures of the world. Her limitless patience, careful attention to vocal technique, and rich repertoire of folk and contemporary South African choral music make her a formidable teacher.
Matlakala’s has been collaborating as a teacher with Village Harmony many times (in the UK, in the EU and, in 2025, at our first camp in New Zealand) since her first VH program in Italy in 2000, which followed a fortuitous initial meeting with Patty & Larry at Festival 500 in St. John, Newfoundland the previous summer.
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Patty Cuyler
Patty Cuyler, born in California, educated at Princeton University, long-time resident of Vermont and currently living in Marshfield, VT, is an energetic, dynamic workshop leader and choral director. Patty is internationally-renowned for her expertise in teaching Corsican, Georgian and South African music. After acting as the co-director starting in 1995, Patty has been VH’s head director and CEO since late 2021.
Over the years Patty spear-headed the expansion of the organization’s reach into the four corners of the globe. It was primarily Patty’s vision and labor that shaped VH’s successful response to the pandemic year and launched the online programs that allowed Village Harmony to sustain itself until we could resume our in-person programs. -
Carlo Pozzoli
Carlo Pozzoli has been a choir conductor since the 1980s, with forty years’ experience leading church and school choirs. At present Carlo conducts the Sacro Cuore liturgical choir, the Ensemble Vocale Milanese and the Associazione Corale Siyaya, in addition to his school chorus. Carlo has helped lead Italian repertoire in 13 different Village Harmony camps since the 1990s, seven of which have been in Italy.
Carlo has also hosted Northern Harmony several times during their visits to Milan, where he lives.
Rehearsal venue:
D’Nyala Nature Reserve
Situated 10 km from the town of Lephalale in Limpopo Province, en route to Botswana, this distinctively striking and tranquil resort gets its name from the massive Nyala tree that is characteristic of the area and is also the southernmost habitat of the famous Baobab tree.
The game reserve is home to the nyala antelope, as well as 60 other mammal species including white rhino, giraffe, waterbuck, zebra, tsessebe, eland and others. A variety of predators have been spotted here: leopards, brown hyenas, jackals, and smaller cats, while some impressive nyala berry and baobab trees can be encountered here.
Facilities at D’Nyala include seven
wooden 2-bedroom chalets with kitchenettes, three smaller brick chalets, a large kitchen where we will cook for ourselves, and several conference rooms.