Neo Muyanga is a composer and installation artist, and The Centre’s Impresario for the Less Good Idea. His work traverses new opera, improv and African idiomatic song.

At The Centre, Muyanga works to develop and implement a unique performative programme within our spaces. This programme runs alongside and intersects with SO | The Academy for the Less Good Idea, as well as The Centre Outside The Centre. Together with The Centre team, Muyanga devises new incubation and development strategies, curates unique programming, and draws new artists and thinkers towards The Centre.

Born in Soweto, Muyanga grew up singing in choirs before starting formal music theory lessons, and later pursuing the Italian madrigal tradition in Trieste, Italy.

His research and performance interests include investigations and explorations of the aesthetics of protest song, with a particular focus on opera within the black community in South Africa, and more broadly concerning the history of musical storytelling in the global south.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi