Message from the Board of Directors

Welcome to the Drakensberg Boys Choir School.

The school is registered as a non-profit company in terms of the Companies Act and is ably managed by an executive headmaster and his team of professional teachers and staff. However, the overall ownership and custody of the school vests in a Board of Governors. We are not involved in the day-to-day management of the school, but look after its long-term strategy and sustainability.

Over the past fifty-five years, many able men and women have been members of this board and they have worked hard to ensure that the school has achieved and maintained its premier status in South Africa and the rest of the world. As in the past, the board currently consists mostly of old boys of the school and of parents of old boys. The current parents association also has a board member.

The board members do not receive any compensation. They are rewarded by living the dream of being part of an inspirational school with choral music at its core, and which produces exceptional young men – young men who are equipped to take their rightful place in today’s diverse and highly competitive global economy.

Each board member will have his or her own reasons for working for the betterment of the school. For some, it may be because they have a son at the school, for others it may be because they have seen how the school has changed their own lives or their son’s life.

We are proud of the young men the school produces and the benefits of choral music as part of the educational curriculum are well known. As evidence of this, our boys regularly win scholarships and are sought after by schools of a high calibre when they leave the school after grade nine. We are a middle school, ending in grade nine. They are all confident and well-mannered young men. When told of how good a particular boys choir is, you can bet that a number of boys from our school make up that choir, or the choir master is an old boy. Our old boys have excelled not only in the music industry, but on the sports field and in business.

The calibre of our old boys speaks for themselves. To name but a few in the music and arts field alone: Deon van der Walt (tenor), Mark Behr (author), Deon Lotz (actor), Terence Bridgett (actor), Jacques Imbrailo (baritone), Dawid Kimberg (tenor), Clint Van Der Linde (counter tenor), Willem Vogel (impresario), Vaughan van Zyl (conductor), Nicholas Nicolaidis (tenor), Zwai Bala (baritone), Hilton Marlton (tenor), Paul du Toit (author), Phelo Bala (baritone), Loyiso Bala (tenor), Dawid Boverhoff (musician), Jean-Philip Grobler (vocalist), Ferdinand Liebenberg (bass), Michael Barrett (conductor and lecturer), Gareth Dry (conductor), Ralf Schmidt (conductor), Xander Kritzinger (tenor), Walter Butt (conductor), Hugo Roodt (percussionist), Marshell Lombard (conductor) and Jurgen Hellberg (director/producer).

Enjoy the magic of the Drakensberg Boys Choir School with me – a true South African gem.

Terence Sibiya