Opera North has announced the sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun as its new Artist in Residence.
Opera North's new 18-month programme for a lead artist from a non-Western tradition is part of its ongoing commitment to embedding diversity at the heart of its artistic decision-making. The scheme will create new musical encounters and bring unique ideas and perspectives to the full range of the Company's work, to ensure that its stages reflect the many diverse communities it reaches.
Born and raised in Leeds, Jasdeep began his productive relationship with Opera North as music director for the first of the Company’s Resonance workshops in 2017. Part of PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Partnership network supported by PPL, the ongoing annual residency programme in support of global majority artists launched with Partition, a collaboration with South Asian Arts-uk in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the division of India and Pakistan.
Jasdeep went on to compose the sitar concerto, Arya, for the Orchestra of Opera North, performing as a soloist in its premiere at Huddersfield Town Hall and touring to Durham and Manchester just before lockdown in 2020.
He is currently working closely with baroque specialist Laurence Cummings as joint musical director, composer, arranger and performer on Orpheus, Opera North and South Asian Arts-UK's ambitious new reimagining of Monteverdi’s masterpiece that brings together South Asian and western classical traditions. Earlier this month, Real World Records released Jasdeep’s long-awaited debut album Anomaly, produced under the mentorship of Nitin Sawhney and featuring collaborations with artists from both western and Indian classical backgrounds, to critical acclaim.
The initiative celebrates and reinforces his long collaborative relationship with the Company, and will open up new creative ground for both Jasdeep and Opera North.
Jasdeep Singh Degun, Artist in Residence at Opera North, said, “I'm very grateful to Opera North for appointing me as Artist in Residence. Enabled by our mutual trust and willingness to venture outside of our respective musical worlds, it has been an honour to work with the Company over the last five years. As part of the closely-knit creative team for Orpheus, I'm excited to be further exploring the territory between my own tradition and western classical music, and I'm very much looking forward to being even more closely involved in Opera North's work over the next 18 months!”
