Wayne Muller is a journalist, communication specialist, and academic with an interest in the points of convergence between arts journalism and arts production, which was the focus of his PhD degree in Musicology (Stellenbosch University, 2018). With a thesis titled A reception history of opera in Cape Town: Tracing the development of a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic (1985–2015), his study revisited the historiography of opera in South Africa and traced changes in the performance practices and views on the performed works. Themes such as transformation, contemporary relevance and the Africanisation of opera are explored as means of creating a distinctly South African operatic aesthetic. Subsequently, this research was captured in a monograph titled Opera in Cape Town: The critic’s voice (African Sun Media, 2023). He is also co-editor of the oral history book, Eoan – Our story (Fourthwall Books, 2013), which relates the operatic activities of the Eoan Group, a cultural and welfare organisation started in 1933 for the politically marginalised community of District Six, Cape Town. Music reception as represented in arts journalism, as well as the performance practices of opera in post-apartheid South Africa have become the focus of his academic work. He is also an affiliate of the international Black Opera Research Network. His interest in music stems from an early start with piano lessons at the age of 7, becoming a church organist in his teens, and later studying organ and singing at the Stellenbosch Conservatoire. He completed a Master’s degree in Journalism at Stellenbosch University in 2001, after studying BA Sociology and an Honours Degree in Journalism. Since starting his career in community newspapers in 2000, he has been involved in arts journalism. As a specialist writer on classical music, opera and theatre, he was Assistant Arts Editor of Die Burger and continues to write on opera on a freelance basis for both media and academic publications.