b. 1962
COMMISSION
1986 ‘Picking Oakum’ Channel 4 drama-documentary about women and the justice system, Perrin evolved the film’s composition through workshops with women ex-prisoners. Commissioned by Director Bronwen Evans
2009 ‘Breakfast in Milestown’ commissioned by Elena Riu for R&B Collection (Piano)
2014 ‘The Wind’ (1927 Lillian Gish/Victor Sjöström) silent film scored commissioned by Birds Eye View (who celebrate and champion films by women), performances include at Barbican Centre London, BFI London, Watershed Bristol
2023 ‘Let the birds have the skies’ an installation for public spaces commissioned by Brussels NGO Transport & Environment’s Travel Smart Campaign. With collaborator Rob La Frenais)
PUBLISHING/RECORDING
2007 Fragile Light - CD released
2009 ‘Breakfast in Milestown’ published by Boosey & Hawkes 2011 Lola Perrin Sheet Music published Piano Suites I-IX (global distribution Spartan Press until 2022, new distribution forthcoming)
2015 By peculiar grace and other loves - double CD released 2018 Nada Kolundžija recorded Piano Suite I for her box set release ‘A Little Anthology of Piano Music 1914 - 2014’
2022 ‘The Arrival’ published by Hal Leonard
2022 ‘Cloud Sky Fade’ was re-released on compilation project La Torre Ibiza - Volumen Quatro
2022 Let the birds have the skies & Elegy for different times released as digital downloads
RESIDENCY 2008 - 2010
Artist in Residence, Naim Audio (until 2010)
2011 - 2021 Composer-in-Residence, Markson Pianos London
Concert Hall PERFORMANCE
2011 Music for 2, 4 & 6 pianos performed at Lang Lang Presents, Southbank Centre London
2013 Kevin Robert Orr performed ‘Piano Suite V - The Silver Suite’ Koper Music Festival, Croatia
2013 Ivory Piano Duet performed ‘Let’s start at the end’ for two pianos at WOW - Women of the World - Southbank Centre London
2014 LP Duo performed ‘Yellow’ for two pianos at Kennedy Centre, Washington
2019 Perrin toured ‘End Climate Chaos’ UK/Belgium/Germany featuring her Piano Suite XI with audience interaction to join together to form citizens assemblies within concert structure and create action points for local environmental concerns
2023 ‘Her Sisters’ Notebook for 10 bass clarinets performed at Low Clarinet, Arizona
2023 Let the birds have the skies installation launched at Tour & Taxis, Brussels
2024 Ivory Duo Piano Ensemble performed a half-hour concert of Lola Perrin's works as part of the world record breaking 26-hour livestream concert of music by women/non-binary composers, Let Her Music Play
PRESENTATION
2011 Presented lecture-recital of own work at Women in the Arts, University St Louis Missouri
2021 Interview presented by Music4ClimateJustice at COP26 Glasgow
HISTORICAL WOMEN COMPOSERS VISIBILITY
2014 Helen Eugenia Hagan Although she composed extensively during her life and was a well-known virtuoso both as a pianist and composer, all her works have been lost, save Concerto in C Minor, recognised as a masterpiece and is the earliest extant work in large form by an African American woman, which had been lying un-played on a shelf at Yale University Library, still in the composer’s hand, for decades. Lola Perrin transcribed Hagan’s score and the work has begun to be performed again. See Wikipedia for more, with a link to Perrin’s short presentation on the project. 2015 Kassia Perrin’s composition ‘Her Sisters’ Notebook’ for ten bass clarinets was created from fragments by Kassia who was composing in Constantinople during 800 AD
INITIATVE CREATION
2016 Conceived then established the initiative ‘ClimateKeys’ in which scores of international concert musicians reproduce Perrin’s bespoke concert structure developed in collaboration with social scientists for Piano Suite IX; Significantus. The structure was based on Perrin’s belief that the urgent issues of climate need to be at the centre of all we do, thus also at the centre of the musician’s concert activity. Significantus’, and subsequently Climatekeys’, aim was to place expert-led audience conversations at the heart of the concert and to build local community around the issues discussed. This no fly-project has taken place mainly prior to the appearance of Extinction Rebellion and before the proliferation of The European Green Deal initiatives. To date has created over 70 concerts in 15 countries in collaboration with ecological economists, policy makers, scientists, poets and other thinkers, with much associated media to help break the taboos around climate discussion that existed at the time.
MUSICAL THEATRE CREATION
2018 ‘Play Piano for the Planet’, a 6-hour outdoor piano concert for which Perrin placed a grand piano into a London roadblock during climate protests, each of 34 classical pianists dressed for Carnegie Hall were ceremonially presented to the public street and performed in a non-stop marathon concert.
2018 ‘The Big Invisible Clock’ - a music art climate suite’ featuring citizen string quartet, vocalist Estelle Kokot, live radio interview by Fergal Byrne with international climate lawyer Farhana Yamin, artists Nazarin Montag & Eleonore Pironneau, and audience written word contribution and interaction performed in London at Markson Pianos Concert Series. Predicted sea level rise featured as data attached to Perrin’s survival suit as the audience arrived; one of several theatrical interventions during the performance.
2019 ‘Carmen’s Carbon procession’ featuring live musicians, theatrical performance by scores of participants in a 5-hour procession in London.
ARTIST/FILM COLLABORATORS
2005- present day Roberto Battista, John Bryson, The Gray Circle, Rob La Frenais, Phil Maxwell & Hazuan Hashim, Nazarin Montag, Mahesh Mathai, Eleonore Pirroneau
