Monday
Monday usually kicks off with all things Manchester Collective, checking in with the team and hatching plans. We’re currently busy finalising details for our 2026–27 season, which is exciting but still under wraps, so this means lots of meetings with brilliant venues across the UK, including Factory International, Bristol Beacon, Southbank and Opera North. Touring is really at the heart of what we do – it’s how we stay connected to audiences and keep evolving.
I absolutely adore curating with the team. It’s an utter privilege to pull together programmes with Co-Artistic Director Rakhi Singh and commission new work by other music creators that we believe in; it’s important to me to champion those who represent the incredibly eclectic, vibrant contemporary scene out there today.
I’ll also be working on a new arrangement of Folkdance, a Meredith Monk piece, for the Collective’s summer tour Patterns in Repeat featuring music by female titans including Cassandra Miller, Clarice Assad, Cassie Kinoshi and Meredith Monk. I’m having a lot of fun sinking my teeth into Monk’s instrumental music as I’m a huge fan of her work. She’s largely celebrated for her vocal music and performance, so I look forward to presenting something a little different from her portfolio!
Tuesday
The rest of the 2025–26 season is really busy for us. First up is our string quartet tour Sky with the Four Suns in February. Today I continue my work with our creative team to design special lighting to accompany a programme inspired by the Arctic sky and natural world. Rehearsals kick off soon so we’re prepping gorgeous music including Pärt’s Summa, Britten’s String Quartet No. 2, Mica Levi’s You Belong to Me and John Luther Adam’s Canticles of the Sky.
Prep also continues for our following concert Sea Shanties, a collaboration with good friend Sean Shibe featuring another new work for us by Ben Nobuto. I arrange a meeting with the brilliant Donald Grant too, a regular of the Collective who has been busy arranging some Gaelic folk songs for us. I’m really looking forward to seeing these powerhouses come together!
Wednesday
One of the best parts of my role is getting to work with artists across different disciplines, so today is mostly about checking in and catching up after the new year. At the moment I’m working with the dance company Thick & Tight, composer CHAINES and cellist Laura van der Heijden on a project called Papillons. It brings together dance, music and theatre, and explores ideas of fragility, accessibility and what it really means to listen — with both mind and body. The piece includes Saariaho’s Sept Papillons, Imogen Holst’s The Fall of the Leaf and a new work by CHAINES. We’re in the thick of developing the show, so we’ll be in the studio together, devising and co-creating later this month.
Thursday
It’s not always easy juggling work as an artistic director and being an active composer and artist. I try to be disciplined and always set aside Thursday and Friday for writing and focusing on my personal artistic projects. At the moment, I’m working on a new commission for pianist Zubin Kanga. This will be our second time working together. The work, called ORGANS, features piano, synth and video installation. The sonic combo of piano and synth has taken me by surprise. It’s an extremely rich palette and soundworld, so I’ve had a hard time whittling ideas down. The ongoing collaboration with Zubin is an incredibly fruitful one, as the core of his practice asks how classical music and technology intersect. These questions feel incredibly pertinent, especially as we tackle huge technological and ethical changes in art, music and society as a whole. I’m having a brilliant time responding creatively to these questions with him.
Friday
I have a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to my career. My work reaches across art forms including dance, theatre and film. Today, I continue my composing time working on the score for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which will open at the National Theatre in March. I’m absolutely buzzing about this one! Directed by none other than Marianne Elliott, I’m also working closely with choreographer Tom Jackson-Greaves, whose work also spans many worlds, including a collaboration with Paraorchestra in 2024 which I adored. I can’t wait to see where our collective brain goes with the production. It’s an extraordinary cast, including Lesley Manville, Aidan Turner and Monica Barbaro. The score features vocal ensemble, strings and electronics, so today means lots of time at the piano and violin, writing sketches, experimenting with FX and processing, and producing demos for the company.
Saturday
Usually, on a Saturday, I’d check out an exhibition at a gallery or catch a film at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts). The most recent thing I’ve seen is Souleymane’s Story, an incredibly powerful film that sheds light on the struggles and life as an economic migrant and asylum seeker in Paris. It’s moved me so profoundly and injects humanity back into the often politically hijacked conversation around asylum in the UK and Europe.
After a busy week, I decide to spend the day enjoying quality time with my partner. He’s an artist too and we both have a tendency to overwork (classic). Luckily we understand the demands of the job and hold each other to account to make sure we switch off. My New Year’s resolution is to protect our downtime more in 2026.
Sunday
This month, the Collective will be touring the country with our show Sky with the Four Suns. I’ll be hotfooting it to Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester to support the tour, so it’s important for me to carve out time to totally switch off on Sundays, enjoying slowness and stillness.
I spend the afternoon in the kitchen, trying out a new recipe for curry laksa and homemade wontons. I love cooking; it really grounds me and connects me to home and family. I come from a family of foodies, particularly my Malaysian grandmother, who ran two restaurants and was a phenomenal businesswoman and cook. It makes me smile to think of them as I whip up a feast, enjoy good food and recharge for the week.
