About

Yshani is a pianist, conductor, music director and composer 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. Her commitment to new work has led to commissions from the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, St. Martin’s Voices, and for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn, as well as premiering works herself by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall, Claudia Molitor and Alex Paxton. She is a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.

From podium to pit, Yshani’s bold, collaborative and imaginative leadership of diverse projects has garnered her international recognition. Such projects include Street Scene for Opéra de Paris, triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the west end’s Vaudeville Theatre, Ruination for the Royal Ballet, Passion starring Ruthie Henshall, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra at Mighty Hoopla pop Festival, Goat for Rambert Dance Company / Lost Dog Dance, Australian 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 singers and devising folk artists Little Bulb Theatre. Yshani is currently music director 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 December 2025.

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.

— This is Cabaret on Showstopper! The Improvised Musical