Zygmund de Somogyi (b. 1996) is a British-Filipino composer, performer, and writer currently based in London, UK.

Their work explores expressions of metamodernism, online folklore, and contradictory recontextualisations of genre and form through music in opera, vocal, instrumental, electronic, studio album, film, and interdisciplinary contexts: their work has encompassed psychological-horror opera, 31-TET string quartets, immersive theatre, unfiction, and graphic-score video games.

Zygmund’s work has been performed across the UK, USA, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Malaysia, Canada, and across cyberspace. They were a Salastina Promising Composer 2022-23, and a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellow at the 2023 Composers Conference (New Hampshire), where they were awarded the Susan Horvath Chamber Music Commission for 2024; they have also been commissioned by organisations such as Gaudeamus Screendive, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, Arc Project, and Opera in Oborne, and participated in masterclasses such as Cheltenham Composer Academy, Contemporary Music Lab Cyprus, Festival Mixtur, Taverna Maderna, and Psappha’s Composing For... with Benjamin Powell.

In 2022, Zygmund's debut opera hikikomori! was premiered in Oborne, Dorset, under the direction and mentorship of Susanna Stranders. Their second opera URSA MINOR, in collaboration with librettist Alexia Peniguel, premiered to sold-out audiences June 2024 at Milton Court, London, in association with the Royal Opera House.

 

Zygmund is Associate Composer with London-based immersive theatre company mushmoss collective, with their most recent show HIVE nominated for a 2023 OffFest Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. They were composer-in-residence for UK-USA theatre organisation Distracted Rat from 2021-22; their work for media also features in projects with OSO Arts Centre, Watford FC, ThinkTank Planetarium, and YouTube channel Rare Earth.

Zygmund is currently pursuing an MA in Opera Making and Writing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where they study with Toby Young and Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh; they graduated with an MMus in Composition from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2021, studying with Ed Bennett, Edwin Roxburgh, and Howard Skempton. They have also received mentorship and guidance from Joe Cutler, Andrew Toovey, Richard Ayres, Misato Mochizuki, Carola Bauckholt, Neil Stemp, David Horne, Daniel Kidane, Georgios Christofi, Andreas Tsiartas, Giovanni Bonato, Michelle Lou, Zeena Parkins, Derrick Skye, Zesses Seglias, and Marcos Balter.

Outside of composition, Zygmund is artistic director and editor of contemporary music magazine PRXLUDES, contributor to various music magazines as a journalist, and vocalist & guitarist in punk quartet Trouble Sleeping.