Danyal Dhondy: Composer Bursary
For:
The Commonwealth Resounds! Sri Lanka
Event date:
November 2013
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Danyal is a composer from South London. He had two opera premieres last year: Just So at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, and The Open Cage at The Yard Theatre. He has also arranged several operas, including Tosca and Madama Butterfly, for OperaUpClose, Malmö Opera, Opera Les Fauves and Lucid Arts and Music. Danyal also composes, arranges and plays the piano, viola and violin in the theatre, including extensive work as an M.D. for Tara Arts. He also arranges and records strings for a host of bands and songwriters, including an arrangment for Sam Lee (of The Tan Yard Side) which featured on his Mercury-nominated debut album Ground Of Its Own.
Last year, I finished work on an opera based on Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. Written for a family audience, I intended it to be musically accessible, and to reflect something of the different cultures to which Kipling refers. After its 2012 premiere at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival in London, I learned of an opportunity to perform it again at ‘The Commonwealth Resounds!’, a festival in Sri Lanka which is to be held alongside the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013. A particular challenge of this project is to re-score the opera for the forces available at the festival, including a children’s choir and instruments from all over the Commonwealth. The bursary from the Bliss Trust / PRSF will enable me to travel to Sri Lanka and be present throughout the rehearsal and performance period, adapting and tailoring the piece as required. I am expecting a challenging and exhilarating fortnight of re-arrangement, rehearsal and cross-cultural exchange. Thank you for making it possible.