Zygmund de Somogyi is a British-Filipino composer, interdisciplinary artist, and music journalist.
Drawing from their punk rock background and DIY ethics, their music “beguiles with its wit, emotional openness, and sonic imagination” (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN) across contemporary classical, opera, theatre, film, and electronic music. Their recent works have explored themes of digital folklore, collaborative worldbuilding, queer identity, metamodern aesthetics, and contradictory recontextualisations of genre and form.
In 2026, Zygmund has been appointed as resident composer with Festival ADAR in Asturias, Spain, as well as an artist at hosq Notations Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, in association with the State Philharmonia of Armenia and National Gallery. Projects for 2026 also include commissions for àktapha and the Jasmine Quartet, a song cycle for soprano Hannah Dienes-Williams, and a cello sonata for Miki Piszczorowicz supported by Visby International Centre for Composers and the Peter Sinfield Bursary Fund.
Zygmund was a Royal Philharmonic Society composer of 2025, who commissioned their trio IN THE EVENT THAT YOU STAY for Temporal Harmonies, Inc., performing at Wigmore Hall and Harpa, Reykjavik. Other recent accolades include a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellowship (2023), and commissions for the Composers Conference, Gaudeamus Screendive, Access Contemporary Music Chicago, and Opera in Oborne, , among others. Notable collaborators include conductors Vimbayi Kaziboni and Dominic Wheeler, ensembles Salastina, KOE Duo, and Psappha, and soloists Lydia Walquist, Fenella Humphreys, and Mahan Esfahani.
Their second opera URSA MINOR, created with librettist Alexia Peniguel, was premiered to sold-out audiences in June 2024 by Guildhall Opera Department 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. Their "punk-rock cabaret opera" MONSTER, in collaboration with librettist David Bottomley, recently received an R+D recording supported by the Guildhall Making It Fund.
As a sound designer for theatre, Zygmund's work featured in productions at Chichester Festival Theatre, Brighton Dome, and Assembly Roxy (Edinburgh Fringe); they were a founding member of theatre organisation mushmoss collective, creating and facilitating experimental, interactive theatre across London. Their work for media also features in projects with Watford FC, ThinkTank Planetarium, and YouTube channel Rare Earth.
Zygmund 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, where they were subsequently a Junior Fellow from 2024-25, researching metamodern aesthetics in composition. Other notable mentors include Derrick Skye, Zeena Parkins, Joe Cutler, and Harriet Wybor.
Alongside composition, Zygmund has served as artistic director and editor of contemporary music magazine PRXLUDES since 2020. Alongside creative director Patrick Ellis and creative producer Georgie West, they have interviewed over 150 composers and music organisations from the UK and around the world, and hosted performances, tours, and commissions supported by The Hinrichsen Foundation's Multi-Year Partnership, Vaughan Williams Foundation, and Arts Council England.
Zygmund also works as a freelance music journalist; their contributions have featured in publications including VAN Magazine and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. In their spare time, they're passionate about punk rock, travelling, and dogs.
