S’bane

BIO

Music is a vast and universal language, and one of its beauties is its ability to change and evolve over the years; with each generation bringing new and distinct elements of creativity to the listener's content.

S'bane, an all-women quartet consisting of four voices ranging from Soprano to Bass, have decided to honour our fallen and living legends of music, by putting a repertoire that comprises of a capella renditions of some of the greatest South African records.

Ntlantla Swana - Ntlantla Swana was born and grew up in East London. She started her musical journey
at the age of 7 years, when she was taught how to play the keyboard as well as the
recorder. She focused on the recorder, and later added the alto saxophone in her list of
main instruments, whilst also playing the marimba, steel drums and singing in various
school groups. In High School, she led all the music groups, including the chamber
choir. She also arranged music for these groups, and thereafter, she was awarded the
Honours Award for Music (highest award in High School).
In 2013, she entered the International Teen Talent Competition where she represented
South Africa in Cleveland, Tennessee, USA. She was the runner up in the electric
keyboard category of the competition, while a New Yorker took first place. She has
since grown and has shared the stage with the likes of Ringo Madlingozi, Vusi Nova,
Nathi Mankayi and many other national artists. She has performed in big stages,
festivals such as Buyel’ekhaya Festival, BCM Summer Carnival, Take Me to Church
Festival, Ugu Jazz Festival, Port Festival, Joy of Jazz, National Arts Festival, to name a
few. Her specialties also include Corporate gigs (Sanlam, Transnet, BIAC etc).
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In 2015, she joined a group called Magnify SA, where she became the administrator as
well, however she decided to spread her wings and leave the group at the beginning of
2017 and look for new challenges.
In 2016, she was chosen to have a one on one session with renowned American
producer and pianist, Kevin Bond. This session brought a whole new different
perspective on her musical delivery.
Academically, she passed her Royal School’s grade 8 practical exams in recorder and
alto saxophone in 2012 and 2014, respectively.
In 2018, Ntlantla recently joined the popular acapella group, Legato, as their new
leading lady. She recently had her debut concert where she worked with the likes of the
legendary Lawrence Matshiza and Mthokozisi Mabuza as her musical director. She
looks into getting on the big stages she has performed on and new platforms as a solo
artist. Her band includes a 5-piece band and 3 incredible backing vocalists.
In 2019, she was offered a job in Turkey to provide entertainment to 5 star hotels. She
has been doing that for the past year, and as a result, the company she worked for won
the best entertainment company GM 2019 award. She has been back in South Africa
working on several projects, with her latest being her Women In Collab: Not A Rock Vol
2 event (which is an all women musical production that encourages women in the arts,
business and other sectors to network and collaborate).
Her ultimate goal is to record her own album with her original music.

Viwo Kulati - hails from the Creative City, Makanda in the Eastern Cape. Her love for music and her respect of the arts emerged at a young age, after being exposed to the annual National Arts Festival. That came full circle as she later graced the Dakawa Jazz Festival Stage in 2017. Later in the same year, she performed at the "Hunter's: Start Something Fresh" stage which was curated by Shuga Smaxx. In 2018, Viwo came 3rd in the Kaya FM & Emirates Pursuit of Jazz competition.

Siya Koyo - born in Bisho, and later moved to Port Elizabeth. She started singing at a very tender age.
She was part of an a capella trio group and later joined Vocal Blend, which recorded two albums, "Ngoobani Aba" (2005) and, "Gam' elihle" (2009).

She became exposed to different musical genres which made her move out her comfort zone and explore and gained her massive recognition as she started working with national artists.

She has graced many stages as a backing vocalist and as travelled the country performing.
Through her musicality, the audience is always left in awe. In 2020, she was offered an entertainment job in Turkey. Although she did travel to Turkey, she had to return without working due to the pandemic.