Neo Muyanga – Composer, Theatre-maker, Musician.
Neo Muyanga’s practice straddles the spheres of performance and scholarship. His various works – including operas, multimedia Installations, performance lectures and commercially released music albums – are informed by archival research and focus on exploring voice as a vector of suture as well as innovation in societies living through flux.
Born in Soweto, Muyanga grew up singing South African choral music and the struggle songs of the 1980s. His major influences also include Madrigal song, which he encountered while studying in Italy in the early 1990s, as well as the Mezmur and Shaabi musics of Ethiopia and Egypt, respectively.
Muyanga holds an MA in theatre making and is currently pursuing PhD research on the pivotal role of the chorus as a social practice and character in the ancient mythologies of various African peoples.