Flight UL505 (2022)

for string quartet

The piece centres around two Carnatic Ragas: the pentatonic raga mohanam and hexatonic raga sriranjini. The flight number entitling this work corresponds to the flight boarded by the composer’s cousins as they immigrated to the UK at the beginning of March 2022.

The opening static musical material is reminiscent of the slow and rural pace of life where the family resided in Sri Lanka. This music takes inspiration from improvisatory Carnatic performance, accompanied by variations of the characteristic tanpura drone heard in this music tradition. The piece quickly becomes rhythmic and harmonically ambiguous to reflect the move to the bustling capital city of London.

The return of the opening melody, juxtaposed against the newly set soundworld, is an ode to the inevitable hyphenated identity of the composer’s two young cousins who will be raised here as she was.

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Commissioned by Netherlands String Quartet Academy as part of their 20th Anniversary concert in June 2022. Premiered by the ADAM Quartet on Saturday 18th June 2022 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht.

Since the premiere performance, ADAM have performed Flight UL505 at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam in July 2024.

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ECHO Rising Stars & Sonoro Quartet

Flight UL505 was performed by the Sonoro Quartet across nine concert halls in Europe in their 2023-24 ECHO Rising Stars tour, and also as an encore in Athens.

24/10/23 … Luxembourg Philharmonie

10/11/23 … Vienna Musikverein

16/11/23 … Brussels Music Instrument Museum

18/11/23 … Hattem (NL)

26/11/23 … Cologne Philharmonie

27/1/24 … Hamburg Elbphilharmonie

3/2/24 … Stockholm Konzerthuset

6/2/24 … Maasmechelen (BE)

25/2/24 … Baden Baden Festspielhaus

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Radio

Recordings of Flight UL505 have been broadcast on radio stations across Europe.

Belgian (SABAM) General & Broadcasting

Swedish (STIM) General & Broadcasting