Daren Banarsë

Daren Banarse (aka Troy Banarzi) (born 12 April 1972) is a British-born composer and performer of Irish and Indian descent. He is considered "an experimental music maker with a more art-orientated approach", creating music with a "folk influence and a fairy-tale quality".
He is a former lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and has collaborated with, amongst others, the Rambert Dance Company, sound artist Scanner, and composer Kuljit Bhamra. He is also a production music composer, and recording pianist for "De Wolfe Music", with numerous high-profile television credits including Newsnight, Dispatches, Top Gear, Horizon, The Apprentice, and Coast (BBC One).
Composition
After training as a pianist at Trinity College of Music, Banarse taught himself how to compose, and joined DeWolfe Music and the composer rosta of Inter Angel. He has composed music for several television productions, adverts and theatre productions.
In the early 2000s he began collaborating with experimental artists, writing music for Jonathan Allen's "performance art" act Tommy Angel at the Hayward Gallery (on the occasion of Eyes, Lies and Illusions), Tate Britain, and the ZOO Art Fair.
In 2006, he created the audio/visual "performance art" piece, Euphonika, which explored people's contraversial relationships with dolls and statues. It was scored for string quartet, harp, tuba, Hammond organ, toy piano, melodica, and live electronics, and incorporating video interviews and film animation. Euphonika was subsequently broadcast on Resonance FM and BBC Radio 3.
Requiem for the Missing (2009) was a performance art piece for the East Wing Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art. It premiered in the courtyard of Somerset House on Friday February 13, with a choir of hooded monks (Trinity College of Music Chamber Choir). It makes use of the following texts: Psalm 88, The 9 Cemetery Contemplations, Pie Jesu, In Paradisum, and 'A Woman Unknown', a 17th century report of a woman found dead in the Thames
Seance (2009), was a collaboration with sound artist, Scanner (aka Robin Rimbaud). A multi-channel surround sound installation first performed at Somerset House alongside Requiem for the Missing. It combines audio recordings of an historic seance with a contemporary police missing report and recordings of the Thames.
A collaboration with choreographer Patricia Okenwa and the Rambert Dance Company led to a new work, Mammon. It was premiered on 22 May at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre as part of the Rambert's "Season of New Choreography" series. The music was scored for string quintet, piano, Hammond organ and drumkit.
After this, Banarse began to experiment with musical instrument making, creating the Magic Organ (2009), a music/light sculpture exhibited at the East Wing Collection, Courtauld Institute of Art, made from salvaged musical instruments and organ pipes.
Development of the Melodica
Frustrated with the expressive limitations of the piano, and wanting "to play something that works well with the human body", Banarse began exploring the potential of the musical instrument, the melodica, in 2010. After several years of practice he set out to over come the "shrill and inconsistent" tone of the instrument by making his own instruments. He embraced 3D printing technology, combining wood from salvaged pianos to achieve a "high crisp tone similar to that of an accordion"
He founded the The Melodica World Forum in 2013, and created the first 3D printed melodica in 2015 . He currently makes melodica tutorials and performance demonstrations on the YouTube platform .
Irish Traditional Music
Banarse is a regular player on London's Irish folk music scene, where he organises concerts and plays Irish music on melodica. In 2017, he competed at the Feadh Cheoil, an international festival and competition in Ennis, Ireland, winning the All Ireland Silver Medal in the 'Miscellaneous' category.
In 2017, Banarse collaborated with a team of researchers at Kingston University and Queen Mary University of London, to explore the potential of artificial intelligence in creating original Irish music. He reported in Vice magazine that there are "no worries about my job (as composer) being replaced in the near future"
In 2018, as part of the project, he produced a recorded album at Visconti Studio, which included both artificially generated tunes and traditional tunes. It was sent out on white label to specialist music critics in Europe and the USA, under the guise of an album of traditional tunes. The reviews the album received were positive, with one reviewer writing, "[A] fine collection of beautifully-played tunes it is. While it includes some well-known titles such as 'Lord Mayo', 'The Blackbird' and 'Toss The Feathers (II)' ... the unnamed jigs, reels and airs here thoroughly deserve their inclusion".
References
Other websites
Daren Banarse official site
Melodica official site
De Wolfe Music site
1972 births
Living people
British composers
British musicians
Musical instrument makers