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. As a relatively new composer, her sound is currently an ever-evolving mash-up of her varied musical tastes and personal worlds; this currently includes elements of contemporary classical music, dirty grooves, 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, Sound and Music, and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn. 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, and a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. Yshani was music director for triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Olivier nominated Goat by Ben Duke for Rambert Dance Company, King John and The Whip for the Royal Shakespeare Company, As You Like It for National Theatre Public Acts, for circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier Award winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre. Most recently, she was conductor/arranger for Longborough Opera’s 2022 Caccini / Waley-Cohen programme, and pianist / music director for Ruination with Lost Dog Dance at Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre. Yshani is currently music director of new opera The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Philip Venables & Ted Huffman, and English Touring Opera’s The Coronation of Poppea. Listen See How They Run; – Workshop performance by Ligeti Quartet