Nirmali Fenn
Photo: Artur Tixiliski
Winged Links (string quartet)
Through a glass darkly (clarinet, trumpet, accordion)
The 5 Steps (flute, alto saxophone, violin and 5 dancers)
Unifying divisions (seventeen saxophones)
Some words (Soprano, flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, violoncello, percussion)
Beginning her life in an orphanage in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, Nirmali Fenn was raised and educated in Australia, gaining highest honours in musical composition from the Universities of New South Wales and Melbourne. A Clarendon Scholarship and an Overseas Research Students Award enabled her to complete a doctorate at Oxford University. After receiving Second Prize at the 26º Concorso Internazionale di Composizione in Turin in 2008, she is becoming increasingly known on the international stage, and has taken up appointments as Composer in Residence for the Saxophone Habanera Festival in Poitiers, France, and the Lake District Summer Music Festival, UK.
Her compositions have impressed many of the world's leading ensembles specializing in contemporary music, including the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Cairn, Ensemble Linea, Kuss Quartet, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Tin Alley String Quartet, Sounds Underground and Endymion Ensemble. Nirmali, whose artistic vision is constantly expanding, sees music wholly as an expression of the observation of social interactions, and her compositions often deal with the concept of unifying divisions.
Early June 2010 she was appointed lecturer and scholar at the Society of Scholars, University of Hong Kong.
