Vuyo Sotashe

Vuyo (Vuyolwethu) Sotashe was born in Mthata in the Eastern Cape and grew up in the small town of Butterworth (Gcuwa). He was exposed to music from a young age with his mother singing in her church choir and older brother playing piano. He also joined the choir, where he engaged in gospel, soul and blues from a young age. His interest in music led him to subsequently join his school choir, which was actively involved in Eisteddfod competitions, mainly focused on western classical and opera music.

Vuyo's interest in jazz was sparked by his elder brother’s love of jazz piano. He discovered great jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé, Kurt Elling, Mark Murphy and many others, which influenced his decision to pursue jazz singing. He moved to Cape Town in 2005 to finish high school and in 2009 was accepted into the prestigious Bachelor of Music Performance degree in Jazz Studies programme at the University of Cape Town’s South African College of Music, under the tutelage of Amanda Tiffin, Andrew Lilley and many great teachers. Vuyo, unlike many singers in his programme, had the great privilege of performing with the UCT Big Band conducted by Mike Campbell from his first year at the college.

In 2010, he had the honour of performing with George Benson at the annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival. In that same year, he was given the honour of accepting a SAMA (South African Music Award) for Best Alternative Christian Album on behalf of his church’s worship band, Proxy (music ministry at View Church in Cape Town) in which he was actively involved. He has traveled through Europe with this band (mainly in Southern Ireland and England) and to other countries in Africa (Namibia, Zambia). In 2011, Vuyo took first prize in the FMR Music Bursary competition, where he competed against two established instrumentalists. In 2014, he won the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival (MAJF) Jazz Vocalist Competition.