I am pleased to announce that I have been been commissioned to create a new work as part of the PRS New Music Biennial. The piece, commissioned by Arts Depot, is called ” You run on tracks, not roads”. Here is some more information about my piece as well as the New Music Biennial:
You run on tracks, not roads
In East Africa the building of the rail road by the British Empire sent thousands on a journey across continents. Niraj will explore his own cultural heritage from India through Uganda to the streets of the UK, playing with the musical language of three diverse cultures.
PRS New Music Biennial
20 brand new commissions will contribute to Culture 2014 – the cultural programme of Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games
Dates for the first set of New Music Biennial premieres are announced today by PRS for Music Foundation. Beginning in January 2014, the twenty commissions will be performed at concert halls, arts centres, festivals and outdoor spaces across the length and breadth of the UK as well as at two weekend showcases presented by London’s Southbank Centre (4-6 July 2014) and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music at Glasgow Concert Halls (1-2 Aug 2014). Additionally the works will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and available on BBC iPlayer for 7 days afterwards. They will also be available for digital download from NMC Recordings.
The New Music Biennial hopes to reach over 250,000 people with these new pieces of music which will be performed across the UK and in Glasgow where the New Music Biennial forms an important strand of the cultural programme which will celebrate Glasgow’s hosting of the XX Commonwealth. The New Music Biennial composers chosen by a prestigious and diverse panel of judges that included Dame Evelyn Glennie, Cerys Matthews and Jason Yarde, were selected from over 130 proposals, and cover a wide range of genres reflecting the diversity of musical life across the UK.
This first edition of the New Music Biennial, which has a strong international dimension, has been developed by PRS for Music Foundation, in partnership with Creative Scotland, Arts Council England and the British Council.
