About
Yshani is a conductor, pianist and composer known for the breadth of her artistry across genres and disciplines. She has performed at venues from Wigmore Hall to the London Palladium, at events from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the All Your Bass Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Kate Nash. She has written works for London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Multi-Story Orchestra, St. Martin’s Voices, and for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn, and regularly premieres the works of others; past premieres include by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall, Claudia Molitor, Benjamin Oliver and Alex Paxton.
She is a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.
From podium to pit, Yshani’s bold, collaborative and imaginative leadership of diverse projects has garnered her international recognition. Such projects include Street Scene for Opéra de Paris; Philip Venables & Ted Huffman’s The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bregenzer Festspiele and Park Avenue Armory, New York; triple-Oliver winner Emilia at west end’s Vaudeville Theatre; Goat for Rambert Dance Company / Lost Dog Dance; Sondheim’s Passion starring Ruthie Henshall; Poppea for English Touring Opera; Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Mighty Hoopla Pop Festival; circus troupe Circa at Barbican Mime Festival; Les Noces for New Movement Collective; and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD and composer of additional music for Olivier-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a collaboration between devising folk artists Little Bulb Theatre and the Royal Opera House.
Yshani was a scholar at both the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is one of the founding composers at Sound & Music’s Music Patron - an initiative seeking to revolutionise the way new music is funded.
Yshani is represented by Rayfield Allied.
“it’s made transcendent by a very extra backing track: musical director and onstage pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam swathes the show in a weird, genius musical patchwork where old hits by Radiohead and George Harrison become soaring vessels to transport you to another world.”
— Time out on “ruination” by Lost dog // Royal Ballet ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The orchestra moves brilliantly from jazzy accents to grand operatic flights without ever covering the voices, instead in beautiful harmony with them….clear, precise music direction.”
— Concertoclassic on weill’s “Street Scene” at Opéra national de Paris
“An Astonishing performance of stravinsky’s music”
— The Stage on stravinsky’s Les Noces by New Movement Collective / Opera holland park chorus / RAM + RCM / Cond. Yshani Perinpanayagam
“[Their music director] Yshani Perinpanayagam is astonishing in her ability to conjure up the tone of any given musical without simply aping the score. Her Legally Blonde-ish ode to totalitarianism titled Freedom Stinks was especially spry and impressive.”