The South African Neo Muyanga is a composer, musician, conductor, and philosopher. Muyanga grew up in Soweto, in the southwest of Johannesburg, a township that was the backdrop of intense student protests in the 1970s and became a birthplace for South African protest songs. His current research often focuses on protest songs and the history of musical storytelling in the South. Muyanga was exposed to music from a young age, but it wasn’t until he moved to Trieste, Italy, to study physics and philosophy that he discovered the madrigal. This ancient Italian musical form, where storytelling is conveyed through multi-voiced vocals, fascinated him. Under the guidance of the renowned choir maestro Piero Poclen, he learned the intricacies of this tradition.

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In the mid-1990s, Muyanga returned to South Africa, where his versatile career in the performing arts took off. In 1996, he co-founded the acoustic soul duo BLK Sonshine with Masauko Chipembere, which gained widespread recognition with hits like “Born In A Taxi” and "Building." Muyanga has collaborated with, among others, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Handspring Puppet Company, and composed distinctive works including the opera Heart of Redness (South Africa, 2015), the interactive installation A Maze in Grace (São Paulo, 2020-2021), and the opera How Anansi Freed the Stories of the World (Amsterdam, 2021). He is also a co-founder and co-curator of the Pan African Space Station (2008), an online platform for experimental African music.

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Ammodo supported the work of Neo Muyanga through the Dutch National Opera & Ballet and a solo exhibition at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 2023.