Hania Rani Instagram – I’m delighted to announce the performance of my first symphonic piece ‚Non Fiction – A Piano Concerto in Four Movements’ which will be premiered in Barbican Center in London on 25 and 26th of November 2025. I will be joined by the Manchester Collective assembled as a 45-piece orchestra, led by violinist Rakhi Singh, conducted by Hugh Brunt (London Contemporary Orchestra) and with guest performances of saxophonist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet) and drummer Valentina Magaletti.
Non Fiction is a piece for piano(s) and symphonic orchestra composed partially in response to the discovery in 2020 of the compositions of a young music prodigy, Josima Feldschuh, written during the horrors of World War II in the Warsaw Ghetto. The first sketch of the composition was performed already in 2023, at the Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw, but it took two more years to reach its final shape – both musically and conceptually.
Recognizing in the girl’s story parallels to the current political situation I decided to to examine it through the lens of modern horrors: the invasion of Ukraine and genocide in Gaza, and how closely we can ‚observe’ and ‚hear’ them through modern media. In doing this I try to investigate the constant coexistence of harmony and disorder creating a sonic metaphor for the survival of the human spirit when faced by the violence and using the emotional value of sound to make these somehow distant conflicts more relatable to us on a human level.
Drawing on my classical music background I decided to combine it with my admiration for experimental and improvised music, symbolically juxtaposing precisely scored music with the beauty of ‚momentum’.
For the opening set I will present a selection of my contemporary instrumental music for film and theatre alongside new music arranged for a small ensemble.
General tickets will go on sale on April 16th; check Barbican website for members sale.
Poster by Veil Projects
Photography by @olivia.wunsche | Posted on 09/Apr/2025 15:29:49
