Musa Ngqungwana
The bass-baritone Musa Ngqungwana was born in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) and studied at the University of Cape Town and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.
He has performed the role of Porgy in Porgy and Bess at the Atlanta Opera, Grange Park Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements have included Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Pittsburgh Opera, the King in Aida at the Houston Grand Opera, the Wanderer in a concert performance of the third act of Siegfried at the North Carolina Opera, Queequeg in Moby Dick at the Los Angeles Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera and the Utah Opera, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut at the Dallas Opera, Zuniga in Carmen at Opera Philadelphia and the Palm Beach Opera, and Balthazar in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors at On Site Opera in New York.
In 2017 he made his debut as Amonasro in Aida at the English National Opera and as Angelotti in Tosca at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. He also sang Gottardo in La gazza ladra at the Glimmerglass Festival, as well as Colline in La bohème and Stephen Kumalo in Weill’s Lost in the Stars at the Washington National Opera.
He will return to the English National Opera in 2021/22 as Lord Krishna in Satyagraha. Other upcoming engagements include Rocco in a gala production of Fidelio at the Austin Opera and Vodník in Rusalka at the Garsington Opera.
As a concert soloist, he has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa.
In 2014 he was nominated for the Marian Anderson Award in Washington and in 2013 he won the Cesare Santeramo / Dr. Campbell Award at the Opera Index Competition in New York. He also received third prize at the Gerda Lissner Competition and Giulio Gari Competition respectively, and was a winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2013.
Musa Ngqungwana is also the author of a 2018 memoir, Odyssey of an African Opera Singer, which was released by Penguin Random House in South Africa.