Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha

Rising star Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha won the Song Prize at the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and recently was awarded the 2024 Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival.

In the 2025/26 season, Rangwanasha makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot, a role she will also sing at the Royal Ballet & Opera. Later in the season, she returns to RBO to make her role debut as Contessa Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and performs the role in concert with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. On the concert platform, Rangwanasha makes her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (Elim Chan), Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Sir Mark Elder), Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with both the Philharmonia Orchestra (Søndergård) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Kevin John Edusei), and Dvořák’s Stabat Mater with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (Jiří Rožeň).

Last season, Rangwanasha performed Verdi’s Requiem with Bergen Philharmonic (Jader Bignamini), Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Wiener Konzerthaus (Daniel Harding), and at International Maifestspiele Wiesbaden (Leo McFall). Rangwanasha made debuts with the Munich Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Nicholas Collon), with Teatro Regio Torino Orchestra for Poulenc’s Stabat Mater (James Conlon), and with São Paulo Symphony Orchestra for Strauss’s  Vier letzte Lieder (Thierry Fischer). Other recent performances include performing at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with The Hallé (Kachun Wong), Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (Dinis Sousa) and London Symphony Orchestra (Sir Antonio Pappano), Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Oxford Philharmonic and the LSO, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with LSO (Pappano), and Vier letzte Lieder with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Giancarlo Guerrero) and Cape Town Philharmonic (Kamal Khan).

In previous seasons, Rangwanasha made notable debuts as Liù Turandot with Washington National Opera and Hamburg State Opera, a role she also performed with the Royal Ballet & Opera on tour in Japan. Rangwanasha made her debuts with the LSO (Pappano) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (James Conlon) in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, performed Verdi’s Requiem with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Nathalie Stutzmann), and returned to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Pappano) and The Hallé (Sir Mark Elder) for Rossini’s Stabat Mater.

Rangwanasha received critical acclaim for her return to the Royal Ballet & Opera as Liù, as well as her performances at Theater Bern as Mathilde in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, and in the title role in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride. Rangwanasha made her US debut with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra in Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a work Rangwanasha reprised with the Cincinnati Symphony under Marin Alsop. Additional performances include Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Kazuki Yamada), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied at Theater Bern, her Edinburgh Festival debut performing A Child of Our Time with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Sir Andrew Davis) and a return to the BBC Proms to perform Vier letzte Lieder with The National Youth Orchestra.

Earlier highlights include; Élisabeth de Valois in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo at Theater Bern, Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Sakari Oramo) at the First Night of the BBC Proms, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Adam Fischer), Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with The Hallé (Sir Mark Elder), Vier letzte Lieder under the direction of Paul Daniel at Opéra National de Bordeaux, and an appearance at Classic FM Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

Rangwanasha is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.