khumalo was born in and grew up in umlazi, a township located south-west of durban in the coastal province of kwazulu-natal. khumalo's early music education included training at the siyakhula community music centre. in 1998 he enrolled for a music degree at the university of kwazulu-natal where he studied composition with jürgen bräuninger, which he completed in 2001. from 2002 till 2007, khumalo studied composition with marco stroppa and music theory with matthias herman at hmdks. he then took up a position as a faculty fellow at columbia university, completing his phd with a dissertation on beat furrer's fama.