Bio
Manuel Escórcio is a Mozambique-born South African singer best known for his work in opera (the early part of his career) and since 1992 gospel music.
He immigrated to South Africa as teenager in 1966 where he attended high school at Helderberg College. He graduated from Helderberg College in 1972 with a theology diploma.
Although he had planned to serve as a church pastor, his musical talent drew him away from that goal into the exhilaration of public musical performance.
He completed a baccalaureate in music at the University of Stellenbosh in 1976, and then studied under mentors in South Africa and England.
Escórcio earned a Master of Music degree in 1982 at the University of Cape Town. His dissertation, "Parallelisms and Analogies Between the Genre of Opera and the Genre of Drama in Shakespearean Plays", describes the direction his life had taken.
As principal resident tenor for the Cape Town City Opera, he sang the lead tenor roles in over 40 productions ranging from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni to Donizetti’s L'Elisir d'Amore and Rossini's The Barber of Seville, as well as Romberg’s The Student Prince.
He also filmed three operas for television, and sang the tenor parts in Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Creation, and Mendelssohn's Elijah.
In 1992, confronted with a feeling of personal emptiness, Escórcio returned to his religious roots and began singing gospel music.
He joined the Patricia Lewis reality competition television series Supersterre in 2010 as a celebrity coach for two contestants.