Param Vir

Biography

Param Vir is a British composer, originally from India.
Born in Delhi into a family life permeated with Indian classical music, Param Vir's strong interest in music developed as a teenager when attending a Roman Catholic secondary school and had informal lessons from composer Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, then resident in India. With no prospects as a composer in India, he read history and philosophy at Delhi University, but returned to music on graduation in 1974 as a teacher. From 1983 Vir studied composition at Dartington with Peter Maxwell Davies and at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oliver Knussen. In 1986 Vir was a composition fellow at Tanglewood. The following year he was a featured composer in the Festival of India in Geneva.

Career

1983 – attended Dartington International Summer School on a scholarship.
1984 – moved to London to study with Oliver Knussen.
1987 – awarded Benjamin Britten Composition Prize.
1993 – Pierre Audi production of Broken Strings wins Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for young composers (Munich).
2003 – first full production of ION tours Europe.
2005 – Horse Tooth White Rock performed at the BBC Proms.
2005 – Hayagriva commissioned and premiered by the Schoenberg Ensemble in Amsterdam
2006 – Between Earth and Sky, inspired by Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate, premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London
2008 – He Begins His Great Trance for the BBC Singers; Black Feather Rising for Stichting Octopus
2010 – Constellations for the BCMG performed at the Barbican
2013 – BBC Proms Commission Cave of Luminous Mind
2014 – Raga Fields – co-commission from Klangforum Wien, Fulcrum Point Chicago, the BCMG
2017 – international tour of A Kinsman to Danger
2020 – awarded PRS Composer Award for portrait CD on NMC

Other

Before Krishna (1987; string orchestra)
Horse Tooth White Rock (1994; orchestra)
Ultimate Words: Infinite Song (1997; baritone, six percussion, piano)
The Theatre of Magical Beings (2003; large ensemble)
Hayagriva (2005; large ensemble)
Between Earth and Sky (2006; orchestra)
Cave of Luminous Mind (2013; orchestra) BBC commission for 2013 Proms
ABLAZE! (2014, soprano, piano)
Raga Fields (2014, sarod, mixed ensemble)
Drum of the Deathless (2017, percussion quintet or percussion duo)
A Kinsman to Danger (2017, baritone, piano)