Born in Mdantsane, East London, Lunathi Ncamini moved to Stellenbosch in pursuit of a music career. Due to a lack of formal musical training, he enrolled for a music certificate at the Stellenbosch University Music Department where he was a recipient of the ATKV–Albert Engel Bursary as well as the GGM Gordon Trophy for excellence in the Introductory Certificate in Music. Upon the completion of the Certificate, he went on to study a Diploma in Practical Music specialising in Voice performance. In 2014, Lunathi furthered his studies by enrolling for Bachelor in Music specialising in Music Education and Choral Conducting, which he completed in 2016. In the same year, he received an Erasmus student exchange scholarship to study Music Education and Choral Conducting as an exchange student at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in Munich, Germany.
He has also taught and guest conducted the departmental semester choir, as well as teaching English to German speaking students, as part of the agreement with the scholarship. Apart from his studies at LMU, Lunathi gave private voice lessons to the University students as well as conducting workshops on ‘black’ South African Choral Music in Munich as well as Berlin. In the beginning of 2018 he was appointed as the choir and voice teacher in the Xiquitsi Classical Music Project, in Maputo, Mozambique.
Upon his return to South Africa, Lunathi worked with numerous school choirs, arranging South African music as well as guest lecturing on the topic of South African Choral Music at the Stellenbosch University Music Department. He was appointed to teach Music Theory in the Certificate Programme as a part-time lecturer. He has worked for the non-profit organisation, Jamestown Sounds, teaching choral music in disadvantaged areas surrounding Stellenbosch. Lunathi has also been invited as an adjudicator in the ABC Motsepe Choral Eisteddfod, at a regional and provincial level. He has been part of an African Music Ensemble which plays indigenous instruments such as Marimbas and Umrhube (amaXhosa bow instrument) under the leadership of Ms. Ncebakazi Mnukwana. Lunathi is also the head of the Music Department at Monument Park High School in Kraaifontein.
In 2021 he was appointed African Choral Music lecturer at Stellenbosch University Music Department. He is currently pursuing post-graduate studies in Music Education and Choral Conducting, under the supervision of Dr Martin Berger (Head of the Choral Conducting Division at Stellenbosch University) on the topic of ‘Culturally Responsive Education in South African School Choirs’.
