Combining Western music and African melodies gave this choir its unique flavour, which has been maturing over its illustrious three decades.

The Nelson Mandela University Choir, which is one of the country's first university choirs to blend Western classics and traditional African melodies, celebrates its 30th anniversary this month.

Started in 1994 as the University of Port Elizabeth Choir under its founder conductor, Junita van Dijk, it is now eyeing the future under the baton of choir director Robert Gillmer.

A former member himself, Gillmer knows he has taken over a choir with a rich and diverse heritage. But there is much more than music in the air, he says, as relationships have been forged, death has been grieved, and romance has blossomed.

"There is something that happens when people sing together," says Gillmer, who has a performance master's degree in voice from the university. "All of a sudden you don't see differences or languages. There is just one unit voicing together.

"It's a unified organism. There is a trust between us. When the conductor lifts their hands, we breathe together, we move together, we see together. There's something special that happens, and it's life changing."

Over the choir's first 25 years, Van Dijk built it into a world-renowned ensemble.

"The choir laid the foundation for what we are striving to...