Thapelo Masita
Cellist Thapelo Masita is passionate about connecting people with music and promoting social change through the arts. A dedicated educator, he has mentored young musicians in the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School and through the Opportunity Music Project. He has appeared in recital at the Met Cloisters and the Morgan Library. His performance of J. S. Bach’s First Cello Suite in conversation with Negro spirituals, South African hymns, and the work of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was described as “assured, his face aspiration[al], imploring” (Bachtrack.com). He was a prize winner at the 2021 UNISA National String Competition and has performed as a soloist with the Johannesburg and Cape Town philharmonic orchestras. He is a frequent guest musician with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Thapelo is a doctoral candidate at CUNY Graduate Center under Julia Lichten and performs on a cello by Oded Kishony on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation. As part of his fellowship with Ensemble Connect, Thapelo teaches at MS 180 Dr. Daniel Hale Williams in the Bronx.
