Vanessa Tait-Jones obtained her BMus, HonsBMus as well as MMus degrees cum laude from Stellenbosch University majoring in voice under Magdalena Oosthuizen.

As a student at Stellenbosch University, she was awarded the Hilda Hendriks, Mable Quick, NFR, Ester Mentz and also various postgraduate merit bursaries.

She passed her Grade 8, Teacher’s- and Performer’s Licentiate exams from UNISA all with distinction and was invited to participate in both the UNISA Grade 8 and Licentiate Scholarship Competitions.

In 2008 she was a semi finalist in the ATKV Muziq competition as well as finalist in the Mable Quick overseas scholarship competition. In August 2011 she was the overall winner of the national ATKV Muziqanto classical singing competition. 

Currently she regularly performs as soloist in various concerts, oratorio performances and festivals including the Stellenbosch Woordfees, Greyton Classics For All and the Klein Karoo Klassique in Oudtshoorn. In 2012 she also joined the group The South African Sopranos who regularly perform at various functions and festivals.

Experience as soloist in US opera productions include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Sister Angelica in Suor Angelica. Her oratorio performances include Handel Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass, Bach Magnificat and St John’s Passion, Vivaldi Magnificat and Gloria; Schubert Mass in G major and Haydn Nelson Mass.

In 2009 she joined André Howard and Minette du Toit-Pearce to record a collection of Afrikaans songs in celebration of the centenary of the Afrikaans Art Song. This album - ’n Eeu van Afrikaanse Liedkuns – was nominated for a 2010 kykNET Fiesta award in the category Best Achievement in Classical Music.

Vanessa is currently a part-time singing lecturer at Stellenbosch University and she also teaches from her private studio at home.  As a result of her research for her honours and master’s degrees, she is also involved on a part-time basis at an interdisciplinary voice clinic at Tygerberg Hospital where she collaborates with an ear, nose and throat surgeon and a speech therapist to provide voice rehabilitation for singers with vocal problems.

Published 23 January 2013