Roxanna Panufnik

Roxanna Panufnik, born in 1968, studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music where she gained a G.R.S.M. (Hons), and L.R.A.M. and, more recently, an A.R.A.M. Her teachers were Paul Patterson, Melanie Daiken and Hans Werner Henze. Since then she has written a wide range of pieces including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral works, chamber music and music for film and television.

Commissions in recent years have included the signature tune for BBC2's Summer Dance series; Eight Deadly Sins for the recorder virtuoso Piers; a ballet, Odi et Amo, for London Musici and the Rambert Dance Company and an anthem for the Royal Academy of Arts 1997 Summer Exhibition service of dedication. Her string quartet, Olivia (with optional part for children's choir) for the Maggini Quartet, was premiered in 1998 to audience and critical acclaim and was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3.

Her recently completed reconstruction of an 18th century opera Inkle & Yarico (including a calypso collaboration with Eddie Grant!) was premiered by its commissioners at Holders Season Barbados, with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Roxanna's Westminster Mass (commissioned for Westminster Cathedral Choir on the occasion of Cardinal Basil Hume's 75th birthday) was performed by the choir and the City of London Sinfonia at the cathedral on Ascension Day, 21 May 1998. It was overwhelmingly well received by a 2,500 strong congregation and critics alike.

Roxanna has had works performed in most of London's main concert halls and also in France, Italy, the Far East and Poland. In July 1994, an entire concert of her music was given to great critical acclaim in Vienna and the 1997/98 season saw performances of her works in London, and all over England, as well as Italy, Australia and Canada. Artists who have performed Roxanna's music include Evelyn Glennie and the Eden & Tamir Piano duo, the Albion Ensemble, Eos and Tim Hugh. Her music has been broadcast on BBCTV, BBC Radios 3 and 4 and Classic FM.

She has also worked for the BBC, as a researcher for television programmes (including Young Musician of the Year and the Proms) and appeared on BBC Radio 3's Record Review. In 1993, Roxanna presented her father, Sir Andrzej Panufnik on Radio 3's Composer of the Week.

Roxanna was the first ever Composer-in-Residence for the Royal County of Berkshire in 1995/96, teaching composition to 300 school children between the ages of 4 and 18. She has done educational work for the City of London Sinfonia and in 1996/7 ran a composition project alongside Inkle and Yarico in schools in Barbados.