Soosan Lolavar


Soosan Lolavar is a British-Iranian composer and educator. She has composed electronic and acoustic music for the concert hall, contemporary dance, installation, film, animation and theatre.

Life

Soosan Lolavar was born and raised in London. She holds dual British-Iranian citizenship as her father is Iranian. She studied Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University, Musicology at Oxford University and Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In 2015 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Iranian music at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She formerly taught Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and Goldsmiths, University of London. She has a PhD in Music from City, University of London and her research interests centre on ethnomusicology with a particular emphasis on auto-ethnography and the politics of diaspora, hybridity and double-consciousness.

Works

Lolavar works in both electronic and acoustic sound, and across the genres of concert music, contemporary dance, installation, film, animation and theatre. In 2024 Lolavar received an Ivor Novello Award nomination at The Ivors Classical Awards. "Undone" was nominated in the Best Chamber Ensemble Composition category.

Opera

ID, Please First performed by Pittsburgh Opera April 2017

Theatre, Dance and Film

Between You and Me: Music for the play by Edward Thomasson Dawn: They Too Circled Warily
  • Music for the film One Shot.

Orchestral

Aqua Triumphalis
  • ''Things Come Together''

Vocal

Mah Didam First performed by the Hermes Experiment, 2016

Chamber & Instrumental

Fulcrum for solo harp Protect Me From What I Want Manic composed for the Carpe Diem Quartet
  • ''Girl''

Books & Publications

Embodied Research Through Music Composition and Evocative Life-Writing Routledge, 2023, 112 pages