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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.^[1][2] 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.^[2] From 1983 Vir studied composition at Dartington with Peter Maxwell Davies and at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Oliver Knussen.^[1][2] In 1986 Vir was a composition fellow at Tanglewood. The following year he was a featured composer in the Festival of India in Geneva.^[3]

Career

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• 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

Selected works

References

External links

• Param Vir official website
• Param Vir's homepage at Chester Music^{[dead link]}