Tebogo Mokoena aka Moruti

Tebogo Mokoena is a musician, composer, producer, improviser and versatile instrumentalist.

His practice includes the clarinet, flute, soprano alto& tenor saxaphones.

While Mokoena was exposed to music from a young age, he saw the transition in his journey with music from merely a passion to a profession that could actually sustain him in 2006 when an impromptu busking session lead him to his first commercially viable gig through a weekly circuit in a local restaurant.

Today Mokoena is one of the most versatile Saxophone players in the world, and has played with some of the best in the business.
Born in Soweto, South Africa, Mokoena began studying the clarinet at the age of 13. Because of the limited freedom that classical music offered him, at the age of 15 Mokoena enrolled at Central Johannesburg College to study he jazz saxophone.

His musical influences are vast but he cites Karim Ziad, Fela Kuti, Brice Wassy, Busi Mhlongo, Nduduzo Makhathini, Kenny Garret, Zim Ngqawana, Eric Mareinthal, John Coltrane and world renouned locally inspired music scholars Khaya Mahlangu and Thebe Lipere.

Mokoena has showcased across the world from Johannesburg, Cape Town, United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Swaziland, South Korea, Netherlands, Mozambique, Botswana, France, Thailand and Lesotho. He has been featured on several television shows and conducted workshops across the world. Tebogo Mokoena is also one of the most recommended composers for Dance Theatre in south Africa, which saw him travelling to the UK to compose music for ACE Dance and Music, amongst many productions he has worked on in his home country.He has had numerous circuits in Korea including a self-funded tour in Korea which sold out 2200 seats in July 2017.

His checklist of collaborations and band collaborations is an arsenal, with names such as Nduduzo Makhathini, Xhosa Cole, Shabaka Hutchings, Louis Mhlanga Sipho Hotstix Mabuze DJ Vacuta Selaelo Selota Herby Tsoaeli Khaya Mahlangu PJ Powers Gloria Bosman Bugge Wesseltoft and German Based Soundway Label. In terms of band formations Mokoena has been featured across multiple collaboration including the undeniably rich forms of and tonality that he gave to the Planet Lindela project.