Culture& is delighted to announce that David A T Önaç is joining the charity’s roster of associate artists.
David Önaç is an award-winning contemporary composer, pianist, musical director and educator. A versatile composer and practitioner, his work has its roots in established concert hall repertoire, the rich musical styles of jazz and gospel, and contemporary classical composition. He will be working with Culture& to develop a large-scale musical commission to commemorate the lives of Enslaved Africans in the Transatlantic Trade. This commission will be one of the highlights in London’s 2024 musical calendar and will be premièred in the City of London. The work will subsequently go on tour throughout the rest of the UK and the USA.
Dr Önaç studied Music at the University of Cambridge, followed by two Masters’ degrees in Composition at Cambridge and the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), completing his PhD in Composition at the University of Manchester in 2013. He has lectured at the University of Birmingham, the RNCM and the University of Manchester, and commensurate with his passion for the development and advancement of young musicians, has also been Tutor in Composition, Arrangement and Jazz at the Junior RNCM since 2018.
Recently, Önaç’s composition A Distant Star in the Stillness, was specially commissioned for the Associated Board for the Royal Schools of Music’s Grade 5 piano examination syllabus 2023-24. Previous composition prizes include runner up in BBC Young Composer of the Year (2000) and winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2012). His songs, arrangements and keyboard playing for gospel choirs have been broadcast on BBC radio and television, including Songs of Praise Gospel Choir of the Year (2016). As a classical pianist, he was soloist from a young age in concertos by Gershwin, Grieg, Rachmaninov and Schumann. He often features as solo pianist in performances of his contemporary concerted works, including his virtuosic Ètudes for Solo Piano (2007) which have also been selected as the set work for the semi-finals of the 2023 Scottish International Piano Competition. A fuller collection of recordings is available through www.composerdavidonac.com
More details about the commission will be announced in November.
Dr Errol Francis, Culture& Artistic Director, said: ‘We are honoured and delighted to be working with David Önaç on this exciting and ground-breaking commission. For the first time in the history of British classical music, there will be a major work in the repertoire that addresses the suffering as well as survival as a result of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans. The work will be an act of redemption and healing that I hope will resonate and endure for generations into the future.’
David Önaç, Composer, said: ‘I am very excited to work with Culture&, and to have the opportunity to compose a large-scale work which connects so closely with the histories and peoples on both sides of the Atlantic. This work will be personally significant too. My own heritage is from both sides of the Atlantic, as are the richly diverse musical styles that influence my compositions. Music has the power to express profound grief, anguish and dread, and this composition will aim to meaningfully engage with the historic transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, an awful chapter of human history. But the commemoration of terrible events can play a significant role in the journey towards a better future and it is therefore also my aspiration that this composition may contribute in some way to progress. Progress towards more mutual respect, deeper understanding, better relationships, fuller engagement, the veneration of reconciliation, and the recognition of the highest dignity in our fellow human beings. Such aspirations are surely the best protection against a repeat of the tragedies of history, and music is surely well-equipped to express a hope of this magnitude.’