About
Yshani is a pianist, conductor and music director known for the breadth of her artistry across genres and disciplines. She has performed at venues from Wigmore Hall to the London Palladium, at events from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the All Your Bass Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Kate Nash. She is a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.
Yshani was conductor / Music director for Street Scene for Opéra de Paris, triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Ruination at Royal Opera House, Passion starring Ruthie Henshall, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Mighty Hoopla Festival, Goat for Rambert Dance Company / Lost Dog Dance, circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, Les Noces for New Movement Collective, and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a collaboration between Royal Opera House and devising folk artists Little Bulb Theatre. She is currently music director of and multi-instrumentalist performer in the new music-theatre work The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Philip Venables & Ted Huffman with performances at Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenzer Festspiele, next performing at the Park Avenue Armory in November 2025.
Yshani’s commitment to contemporary music has seen her premiere works including by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall, Claudia Molitor, Benjamin Oliver, Alex Paxton and Kate Whitley. As a composer herself, commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and St. Martin’s Voices, and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn.
Yshani was winner of the 10th Yamaha Birmingham Accompanist of the Year Award, and was a scholar at the Royal College of Music.
Yshani is one of the founding composers at Music Patron at Sound and Music. She is represented by Rayfield allied.
“it’s made transcendent by a very extra backing track: musical director and onstage pianist Yshani Perinpanayagam swathes the show in a weird, genius musical patchwork where old hits by Radiohead and George Harrison become soaring vessels to transport you to another world.”
— Time out on “ruination” by Lost dog // Royal Ballet ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The orchestra moves brilliantly from jazzy accents to grand operatic flights without ever covering the voices, instead in beautiful harmony with them….clear, precise music direction.”
— Concertoclassic on weill’s “Street Scene” at Opéra national de Paris
“An Astonishing performance of stravinsky’s music”
— The Stage on stravinsky’s Les Noces by New Movement Collective / Opera holland park chorus / RAM + RCM / Cond. Yshani Perinpanayagam
“[Their music director] Yshani Perinpanayagam is astonishing in her ability to conjure up the tone of any given musical without simply aping the score. Her Legally Blonde-ish ode to totalitarianism titled Freedom Stinks was especially spry and impressive.”