Pioneering black conductor melds opera with S.African dance music

Johannesburg: Ofentse Pitse embodies a fierce sense of fun as she waves her conducting baton passionately in a dimly lit auditorium in Johannesburg, a...

Johannesburg: Ofentse Pitse embodies a fierce sense of fun as she waves her conducting baton passionately in a dimly lit auditorium in Johannesburg, ahead of a one-of-a-kind show.

The pioneering 31-year-old who hails from Mabopane, a township some 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Pretoria, is the first black South African woman to own and run her own orchestra.

Now, she is producing a show that brings together classical music and popular South African genre, amapiano, which developed from a mix of kwaito, South Africa's take on house music, and the more international variety.

Pitse grew up with a family that was deeply involved in a Salvation Army church and recalls her pastor urging her to play an instrument.

At 12 years old, Pitse said she "got taught how to play C scale... and the evolution of that was my love for classical music, my love for choral and opera."