About
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 All Your Bass Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Nina Conti. She is a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3
Yshani was conductor / Music director for Street Scene for Opéra de Paris, triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Ruination at Royal Opera House, Passion starring Ruthie Henshall, Goat for Rambert Dance Company / Lost Dog Dance, circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, Les Noces for New Movement Collective, and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a collaboration between Royal Opera House and devising folk artists Little Bulb Theatre. She is currently music director of and multi-instrumentalist performer in the new music-theatre work The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Philip Venables & Ted Huffman, co-commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bregenzer Festspiele and NYU Center in New York City, next performing at the Park Avenue Armory in November 2025.
Yshani’s commitment to contemporary music has seen her premiere works including by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall, Claudia Molitor, Benjamin Oliver, Alex Paxton and Kate Whitley. As a composer herself, commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and St. Martin’s Voices, and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn.
Yshani was winner of the 10th Yamaha Birmingham Accompanist of the Year Award, and was a scholar at the Royal College of Music.
Yshani is one of the founding cohort of composers with Music Patron, a new initiative aiming to transform the way new music creation is funded by directly connecting composers with individuals who want to support them. www.musicpatron.com
“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.”