Roxanna Panufnik Essentials

Roxanna Panufnik is a London-born composer with Polish heritage, and since the mid-‘90s, she's strived to make the world a better place with her socially conscious, multicultural music. Her oratorio Dance of Life, for example, which was written for the Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra, overlays a libretto combining Latin Mass and Estonian folk songs with a lyrical Western dissonance. The “Korean Elegy” evokes a sacred, cinematic feel reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein or Nino Rota, while the Four World Seasons juxtaposes four distinct cultures and puts Panufnik's grasp of rhythm, mood, and texture center stage.