Vuma Levin

"Vuma Levin is destined to be one of South African jazz's greatest musicians" - Mail and Guardian

Born a South African and raised during the unstable interregnum years of Post-Apartheid South Africa, Guitarist Vuma Ian Levin's music is an attempt to interrogate conceptions of identity, nation, culture, power and being both globally and in the emergent, post 1994 South African Democratic project.

Beginning his studies in jazz at age 18, Vuma received lessons from the South African Jazz guitar legend, Johnny Fourie. He went on to attend the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam where he graduated with honours. His time in the Netherlands saw him successfully contest several competitions including The Keep an Eye Jazz Awards, The Dutch Eindwerk Prijs, Keep and Eye: The Records, The Dutch Jazz Competition and the Montreux Socar Internationl Jazz Guitar Competition.

In 2017, Vuma returned to South Africa to take up a teaching position at the University of Witwatersrand. Since then, he has been featured on CNN's African voices, selected by Prohelvetia to be Artist in Residence in the City of Basel at the Musikerwohnhuis, included in the Mail and Guardian’s 200 young South African’s list. In 2021, and named as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz. He has released 4 albums as a band leader and played on several others as a sideman.