image © Nick White

ParamVir.net Delhi-born composer Param Vir is a leading figure in contemporary music. Now based in London, his compositional output includes works in several genres that include chamber music, symphonic music and opera / music-theatre. His works have been performed by major ensembles, orchestras and opera houses, and presented at several international festivals. Apart from new music-theatre works in the pipeline, Param Vir has also embarked on a major long-term initiative to integrate classical Indian music into mainstream contemporary music, and is developing ideas for collaborative work with prominent soloists of Indian classical music.

NEW WORK:

Param Vir recently completed a commission from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, inspired by Anish Kapoor's monumental sculpture Cloud Gate. The resulting work Between Earth and Sky was performed to acclaim by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Hammersmith Town Hall on 24 November 2006. The work was conducted by Alexander Rumpf.

Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millennium Park - photograph courtesy Nag-Bushan Odekar

FORTHCOMING PERFORMANCES:

• 3 July 2008 City of London Festival, UK premiere of WHEELING PAST THE STARS, Drapers' Hall, 7.30 p.m. with Patricia Rozario and Rohan de Saram
• 4 July 2008 City of London Festival HE BEGINS HIS GREAT TRANCE world premiere of new choral version for the BBC Singers, St. Giles Cripplegate, 6 p.m.
• 6 October, 2008 HAYAGRIVA - performance by Klangforum Wien in Berlin.
  
• 24 October 2008 World Premiere at De Toneelschuur - Haarlem (The Netherlands) followed by Autumn Tour (Europe) of BLACK FEATHER RISING - new work of Music-Theatre commissioned by Octopus, with dramatic poem by David Rudkin
• 20 JANUARY 2009 HAYAGRIVA Chicago, Fulcrum Point, conducted by Stephen Burns (USA Premiere)

OTHER RECENT PERFORMANCES:

Wheeling Past the Stars - world premiere on 7 November, 2007 Suedwestrundfunk, Stuttgart - Tagore settings for soprano and violoncello (Patricia Rozario and Rohan de Saram) Commissioned by Suedwestrundfunk, Germany
Hayagriva performance by Klangforum Wien, 26 Sep. 2007 at Warsaw Autumn, International Festival of Contemporary Music
Between Earth and Sky, 24 November 2006, BBC Symphony Orchestra cond. by Alexander Rumpf, Hammersmith Town Hall
Horse Tooth White Rock - Flanders Philharmonic, Anterwerp, 23 October

WORKS IN DEVELOPMENT:

• BLACK FEATHER RISING - Music Theatre for soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, percussion, harp, viola (doubling violin) and cello, commissioned by OCTOPUS ENSEMBLE, Amsterdam with dramatic poem by David Rudkin
• NEW WORK for solo cellist Rohan de Saram
• WHERE MY HEART LISTS - Choral work on texts by Gerard Manley Hopkins, for female choir
• AWAKENING - full length Opera in collaboration with dramatist David Rudkin