Busani Nkomo
2014 to present
Busani Nkomo is the founding Musical Director of Bulawayo Choristers Choir. He was one of six people who constitutionally formed the choir on 22 December 2014, alongside a founding interim technical team of Clive Zephaniah Simango, Givemore Hatinahama Muzombi, the late Ntombizodwa Gumbo, Paul Dumisani Bajila and Thobeka Msipha. The choir's own account of its first five years records that Mr Nkomo became the Musical Director at that founding meeting, and he has held the post ever since.
Under his direction the choir held its first auditions at United College of Education on 10 January 2015, rehearsed for the first time at the Youth Contact Centre on 24 January 2015, and entered its first competition, the Old Mutual National Choir Festival, in Polokwane on 8 August 2015. He led the choir through a difficult period of divisions and breakaway groups in 2016 and 2017, keeping the focus on a recognisable Bulawayo Choristers sound, and in 2018 promoted the young chorister Lungelo Ncube to conductor.
The results followed. The choir won the ZITF Choral Music Competition in April 2018 and defended the title on a national platform in 2019, received the Most Outstanding Choral Group award at the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards in 2019, placed second runner-up at South Africa's Old Mutual National Choir Festival in August 2019 and won the Federation for Choral Music of Zimbabwe that year. A recording from the Old Mutual festival credits the performance of Indebendala as conducted by Busani Nkomo. Under him the choir has since been champions of the Siyephambili Choral Festival three times and runners-up at the Festival of Song Zimbabwe three times.
He is the public face of the choir. He signs the choir's New Year messages and its profile as Musical Director, is the contact for auditions and bookings, and in September 2025 The Herald described him as the choir representative spearheading the fundraising drive to take the choir to the Tiro Mpane Foundation national round in Harare. The Chronicle, reporting on the choir's tenth anniversary year in 2024, named him as musical director of a choir of 120 members.
Beyond the choir he serves on the board of the Siyephambili Choral Festival, a Bulawayo schools and community choir festival established in 2022 and powered by the Zimbabwe Association of Choral and Music Arts, and he publishes choir recordings on his own YouTube channel.
Milestones
22 December 2014. Founding Musical Director as the choir is constitutionally formed.
10 January 2015. First auditions, United College of Education.
24 January 2015. First rehearsal, Youth Contact Centre.
8 August 2015. First competition, Old Mutual National Choir Festival, Polokwane; seventh overall.
27 August 2016. Old Mutual National Choir Festival, Celebration Centre, Harare; fifth overall.
28 April 2018. ZITF Choral Music Competition champions; first prize a new 18-seater Toyota Hiace.
2019. ZITF title defended; Most Outstanding Choral Group at the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards; second runner-up at the Old Mutual National Choir Festival; winners of the Federation for Choral Music of Zimbabwe.
24 October 2020. Rehearsals restarted after lockdown, with 16,000 followers on the choir's page.
2021 to 2023. First runners-up at the Festival of Song Zimbabwe in 2021 and 2022; Siyephambili Choral Festival champions in 2022 and 2023.
February 2024. Named as musical director of a 120-member choir by The Chronicle.
September 2025. Led the fundraising for the Tiro Mpane Foundation national round in Harare.
2026. Siyephambili Choral Festival champions and board member; first place in Bulawayo Province at the Econet iJoyaftaJoy Choral Competition; bookings contact for the Africa Rising concert at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.