Ongama Mhlontlo is a composer, opera singer and music educator from Mthatha, South Africa. Ongama premiered his first song cycle titled Coldest Winter in 2018 at the Baxter Theatre in collaboration with the University of Cape Town. Coldest Winter is a search for love story based on his experiences moving from Mthatha to Cape Town, South Africa. Ongama also performed Coldest Winter at the Manhattan School of Music in 2021. In 2019 he premiered the song I Remember in collaboration with the University of Cape Town’s String Ensemble. In 2020, Ongama completed Struggles and Hope which is a song cycle reflecting on the experiences of living in New York City during the at the Covid 19 pandemic after moving from South Africa. He presented a online presentation of the work scored for tenor voice, piano and string ensemble in 2021. Ongama premiered the song eMacibini written for tenor voice, piano, flute and cello at the Manhattan School of Music International Student’s Concert on April 19th 2021. This song is written as a dedication to the village where Ongama grew up in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Ongama also premiered the songs uMkhulu Wethu and Maseru at Bloomingdale School of Music faculty concert on December 17th 2021. 2021 also marked the year in which Ongama completed writing his first opera titled eMalahleni with Kabelo Lebyana as the librettist and baritone Ntando Ngcume as the lead character. This is opera like all of his music was written without being commissioned. Currently Ongama is co-composing the music to Zakes Mda’s King Mamani libretto together with the co-composer Monthati Maseba. Ongama is the founder and host of The Class of Opera which is a YouTube channel about South African Opera. The channel aims to help promote South African Opera and its rising stars and it has close to 30 thousand views to date. Ongama is now a faculty member of the Bloomingdale School of Music, an Arts admin assistant at Larchmont Music Academy and a choral scholar with the Oratorio Society of New York in New York City. Ongama is inspired by various artists from Trevor Noah to Zakes Mda, Richard Wagner to Kanye West and many more. He's own ethos is " Art inspires Art".