Andile Khumalo (*1978 in uMlazi in the environs of southwest Durban, South Africa) is currently a music lecturer at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. His music studies in composition took him to the University of KwaZulu–Natal before he moved to Columbia University in New York, where he studied composition with Tristan Murail, Fabien Levy and George Lewis. As well as to Stuttgart where he studied composition with Marco Stroppa.

Stroppa introduced Khumalo to spectralism, a sensitive approach towards constructing sound as the foundation for composition. This was further developed during his studies with Tristan Murail. Sound as the foundation is one of the fundamental aspects of the amaXhosa people of South Africa, where bow instruments provide the fundamentals from which the overtone melodies are developed. This sensitivity to sound is found in the music and their language and is ultimately part of their daily living experiences. For example, a change in intonation could easily change the meaning of a word or sentence without changing how it is written.

The change experienced in sound deeply affects the listener’s connection between the lived experiences and the spiritual world. My studies with George Lewis heightened the search for one’s own identity. In deepening one’s own understanding of oneself, as Ngunis and Africans, we believe in a deeper connection with the spiritual world of our ancestors. In my recent work, I have been deeply interested in our sense of existential spirituality through sound.

(Andile Khumalo)