Nitin Sawhney

Nitin Sawhney , D.Mus (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics, and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, is chair of the PRS Foundation, on the senate of the Ivor Novello Academy, on the board of trustees of theatre company Complicité, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions. In 2021 he was an ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall.

Sawhney has scored for and performed with orchestras, and collaborated with and written for Paul McCartney, Sting, the London Symphony Orchestra, A. R. Rahman, Brian Eno, Sinéad O'Connor, Jacob Golden, Anoushka Shankar, Jeff Beck, Shakira, Will Young, Joss Stone, Taio Cruz, Ellie Goulding, Horace Andy, Cirque du Soleil, Akram Khan, Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, Nelson Mandela, Ojos de Brujo, Hélène Grimaud, Natacha Atlas, Jools Holland, Jorja Smith, John Hurt and Pink Floyd. Performing extensively around the world, he has achieved an international reputation across multiple artistic mediums.

Often appearing as Artist in Residence, Curator or Musical Director at international festivals, Sawhney contributes to musical education, having acted as patron of the British Government's Access-to-music programme, the East London Film festival and, currently, Artis as well as acting as a judge for The Ivor Novello Awards, BAFTA, BIFA and the PRS foundation. He is a recipient of 7 honorary doctorates from British universities, is a fellow of LIPA and the Southbank University, an Associate of Sadler's Wells, sits on the board for British theatre company Complicite. In 2017, Sawhney received the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award.

Having turned down an OBE in 2007, stating it was associated with "a colonial past", Sawhney accepted a higher-grade CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours. He accepted it for his father, who he said had died regretting that Sawhney had rejected the OBE.

Since 2014, the publishing interest of Nitin Sawhney's catalogue has been represented by Reservoir Media Management.

Early years

Nitin Sawhney was raised in Rochester, Kent, England, by first-generation British Indian parents. As a child he studied piano, classical and flamenco guitar, sitar and tabla. He has been quoted speaking about his early life as one of three brothers and his musical influences: "My mum and dad both listened to Indian classical music, but also flamenco, Cuban music, a lot of crooners and a lot of pop. My brothers listened to a lot of rock music. So, I was listening to everything from the Doors to Led Zeppelin and a lot of jazz."

He attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School. Subsequently, he studied law at Liverpool University for a short time.

Sawhney moved to London, where he met up with old university friend Sanjeev Bhaskar; together they created the comedy team The Secret Asians. The pair were given a show on BBC Radio, which eventually grew into the award-winning BBC TV sketch show '' Goodness Gracious Me''. Refocusing on music, Sawhney's solo career began in 1993, when he released his debut album, ''Spirit Dance'' on his own label.

Solo career

Sawhney has released over 20 studio albums. He has received 17 major national awards for his album work and is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award.

In 1999 Sawhney released his fourth Gold-selling album, ''Beyond Skin'', on London's Outcaste Records, which took a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination and won Sawhney the coveted South Bank Show Award. After a subsequent signing to Richard Branson's V2 Records, Sawhney released the Silver-certified ''Prophesy'' in 2001, winning a MOBO Award as well as a BBC Radio 3 Music Award. Sawhney's seventh album, ''Philtre'', was released in May 2005, taking yet another BBC Radio 3 Award and in 2008, his eighth album, '' London Undersound'', released on Cooking Vinyl, featured artwork by Antony Gormley and performances from Paul McCartney, Anoushka Shankar, Imogen Heap and Natty, amongst many others.

Sawhney's 2011 studio work, ''Last Days of Meaning'', previewed at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2011, centres on a character from actor, John Hurt, and follows the metaphorical, Dickensian journey of a lonely and intransigent man. His 2013 box-set release ''One Zero'' was recorded live-to-vinyl as a celebration of ten albums releases. Nitin's tenth studio album, ''Dystopian Dream'', was released in November 2015, and his eleventh ''Immigrants'' came out in March 2021.

He produced Anoushka Shankar's 2013 Grammy nominated album ''Traces of You'', featuring Norah Jones, and also produced Jools Hollands' 2021 album ''Pianola. Piano & Friends''.

Music for film, television and video games

To date, Sawhney has scored over fifty films as well as many international TV programmes, ads and cinema trailers. Sawhney has written music for a wide variety of contexts, from dark, high-tension drama to light hearted animatronics.

Sawhney has been commissioned to write the scores for a number of different projects. His music for Channel 4's ''Second Generation'' received a nomination for the Ivor Novello Award for Film and TV Composition. He has also scored ads for Nike and Sephora. In 2006, Sawhney composed a new symphony to accompany Franz Osten's 1929 silent film, ''A Throw of Dice'', which premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London. Other notable works include scores for Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair's adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's, '' The Namesake'', as well as ''Natural Fantasia'' and ''Human Planet'' for the BBC
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