Zygmund de Somogyi is a British-Filipino composer, interdisciplinary artist, and music journalist.
Drawing from their punk rock background and DIY ethics, they employ a uniquely multifaceted approach to composition across contemporary classical, opera, theatre, film, and electronic music; their recent works have explored themes of online folklore, collaborative worldbuilding, queer identity, metamodern aesthetics, and contradictory recontextualisations of genre and form.
Their second opera URSA MINOR, created with librettist Alexia Peniguel and described as “a delight to watch…” (A Youngish Perspective), was premiered to sold-out audiences in June 2024 at Milton Court Studio Theatre, London, in association with the Royal Ballet & Opera. Their debut opera hikikomori!, commissioned by Opera in Oborne, was performed in April 2022 in Oborne, Dorset, under the direction and mentorship of Susanna Stranders.
Zygmund’s music has received performances across the UK, continental Europe, North America, and Asia. They are a Royal Philharmonic Society composer of 2025, partnered with Wigmore Hall Learning. Recent accolades include a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellowship at the 2023 Composers Conference (USA), where they were awarded the 2024 Susan Horvath Chamber Music Commission, creating song cycle Gilded with librettist Sara Clifford; and Salastina’s Promising Composers programme of 2022-23. They have been commissioned by Gaudeamus Screendive, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, Arc Project, Guildhall New Music Society, and Opera in Oborne, among others; notable collaborators include conductors Vimbayi Kaziboni and Dominic Wheeler, ensembles àktapha, Salastina, KOE Duo, and Psappha, and soloists Lydia Walquist, Fenella Humphreys, and Mahan Esfahani.
Multi-disciplinary collaboration is at the forefront of Zygmund’s compositional practice. They were Associate Composer with theatre organisation mushmoss collective from 2022-24, creating and facilitating experimental, interactive theatre across London; their show HIVE was nominated for a 2023 OffFest Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. They were composer-in-residence for UK-USA theatre company Distracted Rat from 2021-22; their work for media also features in projects with Watford FC, ThinkTank Planetarium, and YouTube channel Rare Earth.
Alongside composition, Zygmund has served as artistic director and editor of contemporary music magazine PRXLUDES since 2020; alongside co-director Patrick Ellis, they have interviewed over 100 composers and music organisations from the UK and around the world. They also work as a freelance music journalist, having contributed articles to VAN Magazine, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, and What is Metamodern?.
Zygmund is currently a Junior Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (2024-25), researching metamodern aesthetics in composition, where they study with Julian Philips. They graduated with an MMus in Composition from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2021, studying with Ed Bennett, Edwin Roxburgh, and Howard Skempton, and with an MA in Opera Making and Writing from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Toby Young and Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, supported by the Guildhall School Trust.
Outside of contemporary music, they’re an avid punk rock fan, songwriting and performing in punk quartet Trouble Sleeping.
