Andile Yenana is an acclaimed South African jazz pianist from King William’s Town, Eastern Cape. After schooling in KwaZulu-Natal and Mthatha, he pursued tertiary studies at Fort Hare University and later the University of Natal, graduating in 1995 with a BMus in Jazz Studies. As a session musician, producer, and composer, he released two albums with Sheer Sound, earning five SAMA nominations in 2006. He won Best Producer for Winston Mankunku Ngozi’s Abantwana be Africa and for Suthukazi Arosi’s Ubuntu, and composed the score for Xoliswa Sithole’s documentary Shouting Silent. In 2005, he received the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Jazz and premiered a new work at the National Arts Festival.
Yenana has contributed significantly to jazz education, teaching improvisation at the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Festival in Makhanda. He was also a member of the influential ensemble Voice, alongside Herbie Tsoaeli, Marcus Wyatt, Sidney Mnisi, Lulu Gontsana, and later Morabo Morejele—musicians central to shaping modern South African jazz. The group released two studio albums and toured widely, both locally and internationally.