Niraj Chag: New Music Biennial

Event date:

23rd March 2012

Find out more by visiting:

www.nirajchag.com/niraj_homepage.php

Niraj is one of the key modern interpreters of Asian classical and folk styles-that journey began when he had his first job making tea in Mark Hill’s music studios in Southampton! From there Niraj began experimenting by mixing modern production with western and eastern classical styles. His work was spotted by Nitin Sawhney leading to his first record deal with the Outcaste label in its heyday. Self-taught in music, Niraj continued developing his style over a number of years while working on musicals, scores and dance productions. All this culminated in 2006 with the release of his critically acclaimed debut album ‘Along the Dusty Road’.

As well as his stand-alone work, Niraj has built a reputation as a unique soundtrack composer. He created his first musical (Baiju Bawra) aged 25. His work since then has included Mahabharata (BBC Radio 4) the Bafta nominated Simon Schama’s ‘Power of Art’ series (BBC2) and the 2008 TV series ‘The Age of Terror’. In 2009 he created and produced the score for the BBC series of programmes Darwin’s Dangerous Ideas, presented by Andrew Marr. Niraj has worked on more than twenty dance productions including ‘Awaz’, ‘Bells’ and ‘Daredevas’ (Akademi) He has also produced a wide variety of original work for TV and radio such as HBO’s ‘Sex and the City’ and for plays, including the recent Olivier Award winning ‘Rafta, Rafta’ (Royal National Theatre). With the ‘Reel Bollywood’ project Niraj toured the country running workshops for young people and in 2008 he put together an eclectic score for the official Olympic Torch event on London’s South Bank featuring 600 vocalists, opera singers and a 40-piece brass band.