Image Credit: What About The Ash / Marc Tunguz
Below you will find some key information about me. Please get in touch for an official biography or click here for a full work list.
Soosan Lolavar is a British Iranian composer whose music “sounds like nothing else on earth” (Gramophone). She was born in the UK to British and Iranian parents, and spent many decades immersed in the sounds of the classical musics of both cultures. These experiences helped her develop a sense of sound on the fringes, connected to multiple places but not defined by either in isolation or in combination.
In essence, her music moves far beyond metaphors of “fusion” or assumptions of a binary opposition between east and west. Instead, she aims for a deeper, lifelong conversation between these musical traditions wherein her lifetime of personal experience and creative work intertwine to produce something uniquely diasporic. Fundamentally, she creates work which speaks to the experience of living in the in-between.
Her work is concerned with deep attendance to the texture, transformation and layering of sound. Indeed, she often devises unique tuning systems for her work with the help of the infinite capabilities of the santoor, such that each piece is an exercise in unique world-building. Through these means, she creates music which continues to resonate in the world long after we have stopped listening.
Some recent activities include:
2024
- Nominated for an Ivor’s classical award for best chamber ensemble piece for her work for solo detuned violin and string ensemble, Undone performed by Sarah Saviet and Ruthless Jabiru, conducted by Kelly Lovelady
- Commissioned by The Riot Ensemble and Gaudeamus Festival, Netherlands to write EarthBodyWork performed at Gaudeamus 2024
- Performed a live set for santoor and cello with Colin Alexander at Another Sky festival of SWANA / diaspora music
- Released the album Girl on Nonclassical Records, selected as one of the best releases in contemporary classical music on bandcamp on February 2024
- Published a book exploring notated instrumental composition as a means for producing theoretical knowledge on diaspora (Routledge)
- Gave a keynote speech at Eavesdropping Festival exploring continuing creative practice while navigating cancer treatment entitled Notes on Failure: Or Making Whilst Sick, described as “a standout moment of the weekend”
2023
- Selected as the English delegate composer at the annual ISCM Music Days Festival held in South Africa.
- Released an album of music for solo detuned violin music entitled Every Strand of Thread and Rope with violinist Sarah Saviet, on the label all that dust
2022
- Selected as one of six composers on the annual Royal Philharmonic Society Composer programme
- Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and Cheltenham Music Festival to write a new work for SATB choir premiered by the Carice Singers entitled The World is the Active String
2021
- Commissioned by The Riot Ensemble and Zeitgeist to write Undone, a solo work for detuned violin performed by Sarah Saviet
- Commissioned by Listen Pony to write Human Voices, a solo work for accordion performed by Samuele Telari
- Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write a composer postcard for solo tuba, Rites
2020
- Awarded a PhD in music from City, University of London for a portfolio of compositions and thesis exploring double-consciousness and Iranian identity through creative compositional practice
2019
- Performed Inventory of My Life, a santoor-dance work co-produced with Kae Ishimoto and Rosa van Hensbergen in Cambridge, Tokyo and London, supported by PRS Women Make Music
2018
- Performance of ID, Please, an opera about immigration and borders as part of the Tête à Tête opera festival, funded by Arts Council England, Carnegie Mellon University and Iran Heritage Foundation
2015
- Protect Me From What I Want performed by members of the London Sinfonietta
- Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Iranian music at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh
2014
- Pieces performed at the V&A and Royal Festival Hall and a short film on her practice featured on the BBC in the UK and Iran
2013
- Selected as one of two Embedded composers in residence at the Southbank Centre
- Received funding from Arts Council England, Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Iran Heritage Foundation to pursue ‘Stay Close’, a ten-month project exploring contemporary classical music as a means of cultural exchange between the UK and Iran
2012
- Winner of the John Halford Prize for Composition for her work for piano and electronics Black Dog
- Selected as part of the Adopt a Composer scheme funded by PRS for Music Foundation and run by Making Music, in partnership with Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3.
She holds degrees in Social and Political Sciences (University of Cambridge), Musicology (University of Oxford), Composition (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance), an Advanced Certificate in Music funded by a Fulbright Scholarship (Carnegie Mellon University, USA), and a PhD in Music from City, University of London.
She was previously a Lecturer in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, an Assistant Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and Visiting Lecturer at City, University of London.