WOMAD

Nitin Sawhney

From United Kingdom

Official website: nitinsawhney.com

There is no disputing the fact that Nitin Sawhney is widely regarded as one of the most influential and versatile creative talents alive today. Firmly established as a world-class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, orchestral composer, and cultural pioneer, Sawhney has become a latter-day Renaissance man in the worlds of music, film, videogames, dance and theatre.

Now signed to Universal Music Publishing Ltd, Sawhney has released 8 studio albums - each one garnering critical acclaim. Indeed, Sawhney has received no less than 15 major national awards for his work. He has recently recorded his eighth album, London Undersound, which features performances from Paul McCartney, Anoushka Shankar, Natty and Imogen Heap amongst others and specially contributed artwork from Antony Gormley. He has toured each of his albums extensively and has sold-out many of the world's most prestigious venues both as a band and DJ. Sawhney has worked with a host of artists including Sting, Paul McCartney, Sinead O'Connor, A R Rahman, Jeff Beck, Brian Eno, Fink, and Will Young. In 2007 Sawhney co-produced the sophomore album for Atlantic Records artist Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly.

To date, Sawhney has scored over forty films, as well as having scored TV ads for top international agencies. His music for Channel Four's Second Generation saw him nominated for the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition (2004), and his scores have accompanied everything from dark, high-tension drama to light-hearted animatronics. Recent works include orchestral scores for Mira Nair's The Namesake, Sony Playstation 3's Heavenly Sword, and Franz Osten's silent film classic. Sawhney will be scoring Deepa Mehta's forthcoming adaptation of Salman Rushdie's book - Midnight's Children, The Fifth Beatle, on the life of Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, and the directorial debut of legendary actor Andy Serkis, Dark Blue Rising. He is also currently composing the score for Ninja Theory's follow up game development to Heavenly Sword, 'Enslaved'. He has also recently been commissioned to score for a major 8 part TV series for the BBC called 'Human Planet' which will air in October 2010.

An acclaimed flamenco guitarist and classical/jazz pianist, Sawhney's musical ability to transcend cultural barriers has also gained him much recognition within the classical community. In 2006 Sawhney composed a 1hr 20-minute symphony to accompany A Throw of Dice, which premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London, worked with the BBC Concert Orchestra on Natural World Symphony, and the London Philharmonia on The Namesake. Sawhney has curated an Indian festival at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London with Akram Khan where they both performed individually and jointly during the festival period in November 2009. Together they created an innovative new piece, Confluence, which was performed at the festival and was revisited in July 2010. He is currently working with Akram Khan on his new production Vertical Road. Sawhney is also working on ideas and tracks for his ninth studio album.

Much of Sawhney's attention remains focused on the areas of education and community building, accepting the role of Artist in Residence for no less than 5 separate performing arts organisations around the world. Sawhney joined Sir George Martin as a patron for the British Government's Access-to-Music program and is also patron of the Raindance East Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. Sawhney appears regularly as an arts and current affairs commentator on topical discussion and news programs such as the BBC's Newsnight, Newsnight Review, and HardTalk. He has also written for UK national broadsheets: The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and The Observer.
(Biography supplied by artist management 2010)

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