Her mother stopped what she was doing. Perhaps concerned at first but quickly intrigued. And then astonished by the sounds coming from her toddler’s room.

The notes being sung were as clear as crystal; the tune unmistakable. E, F#, G# – and then D#, E, E, F#, F#, G#. The words of the well-known children’s hymn sang out merrily: “Hark, hark, hark! While infant voices sing” in perfect rhythm and pitch.

The toddler was her 18-month-old daughter, Mandy. It was the beginning of a lifetime of love of music for Mandy Collins, the recently elected chairperson of the Johannesburg Bach Choir.

Speaking about that memory of her mother’s, which she has clearly held close to her, it is not surprising that Mandy has a solid sense of pitch and can readily harmonise any tune.

“I can’t go without song. My brain speaks music. I can’t sleep for hours after choir practices. I love the community part of choir and of singing together.”

Mandy has a strong emotional bond with music, as well as an understanding of how music gives life in all its fullness. She has sung in many choirs from a young age, including an involvement in church choirs. Her understanding of God, who “I find everywhere”, is shaped by music.

“If God exists anywhere for me, it’s in music,” Mandy says.

Trained as a journalist at Rhodes, her first job was on The Sunday Times under the uncompromising editorship of Ken Owen. After several years of writing about television and radio, she left newspapers for magazines, as the features editor at True Love, under the editorship of Khanyi Dhlomo.

Mandy says she enjoys journalism and writing, “because one can ask people questions that one usually can’t ask out of politeness, and I love hearing their stories.”

But when she got to the point of being expected to train people, she didn’t feel she knew enough, and started freelancing as a writer in 1997. This was formalised in 2019 and rebranded as Red Door Ink at the beginning of this year. Entering a profession in which writing is key was surely natural for someone born to love music and singing.

Not surprising, therefore, is that Mandy loves writing songs and has written many. She began this while still at Rhodes but then stopped for many years until a friend persuaded her to get back to this art form in 2013.

She explains: “Writing copy comes very easily to me because no one sees it until the final edit. Writing a song is very personal, and it’s messy. I am also very shy about people hearing me play, so I only write when I’m inspired to, and when the house is empty.”

Shy about her music Mandy might be, but the manner in which she has confronted the challenges that life throws at one show her to be highly capable. She grew up at the height of the apartheid era and has come to believe that apartheid damaged everyone. Living in a South Africa in which institutional racial separation was a given, Mandy recalls that she had to overcome “ingrained doctrines” from that era. She soon came to an understanding that freedom from doctrinal inflexibility is critical in balancing human rights with human responsibilities.

She speaks with pride of her two daughters, the eldest of whom, Tessa, is a high school science teacher who holds an honours degree in astrophysics. Her younger daughter, Samantha, is in her final year of LLB at Wits University and is passionate about social justice. One can see Mandy the mother in her daughters’ lives.

Likewise, the lighter side of Mandy comes out when she speaks with great love and humour about her two adored dogs. The chocolate labrador, Milo – nicknamed Fungus, “because he has grown on me!” – is one of them. Chocolate labs, she says, have special needs because they are like having “fuzzy alligators” in the house. In addition, they are typical retrievers.

She also has a “staffie” called Molly, described on social media as “the belly with legs” who, when it is cold, looks like an “elderly Russian peasant woman who has seen terrible things in the gulag”. Mandy began writing about them on social media as a way of processing their quirky behaviour! Mandy loves her dogs and would miss them, but would adjust to not having them. Being without music, however, is a different story.

“I could not manage without music. Music is my life.”

Turning to her vision for the Johannesburg Bach Choir, Mandy believes that the choir is making music more accessible to a broader spectrum of people with programmes that are relevant and accessible.

Having fun while working to present a polished programme to audiences is important, as is keeping a good balance between the various voice parts.

Mandy places a premium on community building and believes the tea break during practices is a crucial part of this. She would like to see even greater cohesion in the choir, with members showing genuine care for one another, and diversity of membership continuing to increase.

Red is Mandy’s favourite colour. Clearly, with Mandy in the chair, the Johannesburg Bach Choir is in for some red-letter performances!