Omar Shahryar
Director
Omar Shahryar is an award-winning composer, facilitator and peace-maker working for opera companies and arts festivals around the world. His internationally acclaimed opera about young people's reactions to extremism, A Shoe Full of Stars, won the YAMAward Prize for Best Opera for Young People 2018 and was reported on by UK national news programmes. His latest opera, The Extraordinary Adventures of You and Me, toured with English Touring Opera in Spring 2020.
Omar has led participatory music projects for some of the world's leading opera companies and concert halls, including the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Glyndebourne, Royal Opera, Wigmore Hall and Streetwise Opera. He has led artist trainings for the Royal Opera House of Norway and the Royal Opera House of Oman.
Omar is the Artistic Director of Opera Schmopera, an opera company for young people, and a board member for Tête-à-tête Opera Company and the European Network of Opera, Music and Dance Education (RESEO). In 2020, Omar finished his PhD thesis in the Composition of Opera for Young People at the University of York, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
For Mahogany Opera: Snappy Operas.
