Juwon Ogungbe is a British-Nigerian classically trained opera singer, composer and pianist. He is the Founder and Music Director of Juwon Ogungbe Ensemble.
Ogungbe has composed and directed music for various British theatre companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Leeds Playhouse, the Royal Court Theatre, LIFT, Opera North and at the Grimeborn Opera Festival. His opera – King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba premiered in 2019.
Other commissioned pieces include compositions for the BBC and for the London’s Southbank Centre.
Juwon Ogungbe performs in a range of genres. His classical singing credits include performing at the Aldeburgh Festival. He has released several albums including Life Force Music, which was well received by audiences and critics alike. Juwon has recently released a new EP in August 2023, called Origin, inspired by the Odun Omo Olowu Festival in Nigeria.
Internationally Juwon has worked as a composer, singer and theatre maker at the Dhow Countries Music Academy in Zanzibar, and he presented his music-theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, at the Harare International Festival of Arts in 2012. Juwon has also worked as an international scholar/artist at the University of Richmond, Virginia, USA where he composed the music for Threshold – a musical, and in New York’s Off Broadway, he was the composer and musical director of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko for Theatre for a New Audience.
Ref: https://juwonogungbe.com/ ; Juwon Ogungbe biography
Image credit: https://juwonogungbe.com/
