Nonhlanhla Yende is an advocate for the power of the performing arts and is passionate about using performance as a tool to nurture and develop local talent. She wants to see an end to the struggles singers face both locally and abroad, and believes that artists have an important role to play in the development of South Africa. As administrator of the Youth Development and Education department at Cape Town Opera, she’s able to see these ideals realised on a very practical level, coordinating programmes in which young singers are introduced to opera for the first time and can become part of a pipeline of new talent preparing for a career in music. “I am a child of the community,” Nonhlanhla explains of her affinity for her work, and she’s also a singer herself: she’s been singing with Cape Town Opera for over a decade, lending her mezzo-soprano voice to productions of Lost in the Stars, Carmen, and Porgy and Bess.