Nottingham Trent University often hold lunchtime concerts / recitals that are free to the public. On Wednesday lunchtime we went to one such concert. Baritone singer Themba Mvula presented a programme of songs by composer Tim Lole (who played the steinway piano to support Themba) and also sang a few more well known favourites.
Themba Mvula is an operatic baritone based in the UK, he was born and raised in Zambia. He’s a multi-instrumentalist and discovered his passion for singing at secondary school in North Wales, he went on to study Vocal & Operatic Performance at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Themba is also the MD of the Lichfield Gospel Choir.
Jane and I don’t really know much about opera or classical music, but it was good to listen to the genre and we both really enjoyed the performance.
Themba recently judged a singing competition for the students at NTU and was returning to the university for this performance.
The concert was being recorded for Themba (I think by the university staff) and there was some really top quality, high end camera geear on display. I spoke to the photographers before hand and they said it would be OK to take some photos during the concert (we sat on the front row).
After the concert, Jane asked me if I was going to ask Themba for a stranger photo. As you can see I did. I asked Themba if he would step outside the hall so I could photograph him in natural light. We stood on the steps outside the main entrance and I took a few photos with my Sony RX100VII. I shook Themba’s hand, told him we both enjoyed the performance, wished him luck in his career and asked permission to post the photos onto social media.
Thank you for allowing me to photograph you Themba, it was a really enjoyable performance.
