Yshani Perinpanayagam

"Being a composer is like reading your diary out loud"

Yshani is a composer, pianist and music director from London, specialising in not specialising. Her sound is an ever-evolving mash-up of her varied musical tastes and personal worlds; this currently includes elements of contemporary classical music, dirty grooves, the influence of her Sri Lankan parents, game and play, melancholy, and activism. What does being Yshani's patron look like? Yshani is in touch fairly regularly with her patrons, sharing early drafts of new work, personal revelations about her process and improvised experimentations on rough-and-ready material, peppered with thoughtful and funny reflections on her journey as she continues to find her feet as a composer. She also shares insights into her performance career as a improv pianist on stage, conducting in an orchestra pit, in a recording studio and beyond! Supporting a composer on Music Patron gives you a first-hand perspective on the many elements within the creative process, and an understanding of an authentic journey of a composer. You can find out more about what it’s like to be a patron here  Biography As a composer, commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, St. Martin’s Voices and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn, with her arrangements performed by CHROMA, Chineke! and for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Share Sound. As a multi-genre pianist and music director, Yshani has performed at venues from Wigmore Hall to the London Palladium, at events from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the Barbican Mime Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Nina Conti. She is pianist of the Del Mar Piano Trio and Carismático Tango Band, a regular improvising pianist with The Comedy Store Players, and a guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. Yshani was music director / conductor for triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Ruination at Royal Opera House, Street Scene for Opéra Bastille, Passion starring Ruthie Henshall, Poppea for English Touring Opera, Goat for Rambert Dance Company / Lost Dog Dance, circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, Les Noces for New Movement Collective, Longborough Opera’s 2022 Waley-Cohen / Caccini programme, and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a collaboration between Royal Opera House and Little Bulb Theatre. She is currently music director of new music-theatre work The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Philip Venables & Ted Huffman, co-commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Southbank Centre, Bregenzer Festspiele and NYU Center in New York City. Listen See How They Run; – Workshop performance by Ligeti Quartet | Yshani Perinpanayagam