ABOUT ZARA
Zara is a twice PRS awarded composer, writer, lyricist, songwriter, orchestrator and live performance artist. In addition to her well-established career as a much sought after contemporary musical theatre writer, she works across multiple disciplines including writing music for straight plays, media, cabaret, comedy, production, classical, choral and broadcast.
Zara’s music and lyrics have been described as ‘deceptively intricate, sublime, witty, intimate, funny, moving, thought-provoking, superb.’
Alongside her professional composing and musical direction engagements, Zara spent over twenty years working extensively in music and theatre education where she specialised in major large-scale devising and performance projects both in the UK (including for many of the leading drama schools) and internationally. You can find a detailed list of her Visiting Professional and Education work credits here.
LATEST HIGHLIGHTS
Zara was Composer and Sound Designer on a seven-part web series called Bertie, an entertaining education series exploring climate change and the environment that premiered in April 2022, commissioned and produced by Little Angel Theatre. (All episodes available here).
She is also currently writing and developing a new children’s musical, and is continuing work on Moving Water, an audio musical drama (with sound design by Gareth Fry), which completed it’s first stage of developement in 2021 and for which she was one of eleven recipients of funding from the Fusion Fund, via Help Musicians UK (2020). At the end of 2020 she also received a large grant from Arts Council England’s Develop Your Creative Practice funding stream to spend the first quarter of 2021 working towards developing a broader focus in the broadcast media composing & production music space.
During lockdown 2020 Zara wrote, composed, produced and edited FLOMO, a musical comedy short, co-directed by Joyce Branagh, with sound design by Gareth Fry, featuring Gary Willmot. It was shortlisted for the BBC Culture in Quarantine Series 2020 (BBC Arts and The Space).
In October of 2020 she composed the score for Reach For the Stars, produced by Little Angel Theatre inspired by Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space. The show embarked on its second tour including summer performances in partnership with Manchester Literature Festival.
Zara’s musical In These Walls, which is currently in the first-stage of development and was selected for BEAM 2020, was presented to industry at the rescheduled event in September 2021.
In 2019 she was commissioned by The Canales Project and the University of Wolverhampton in partnership with the United Nations Decade of Women to write a song for the Hear Her Song initiative. Having received its world premiere in the States in May, Zara performed the UK premiere of Santa Rosa Sunset at the gala performance in Wolverhampton in June.
Earlier that year she completed work on a commission for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) who asked her to write six new pieces for percussion and piano accompaniment to be published in their 2020 exam syllabus (for Grades 1, 3, 4 & 5). They are still part of the current sylllabus in 2023 and are available for purchase from all music retailers.
In 2018 she commendably received her second funding award from the PRS for Music Foundation via their Open Fund for music creators for her debut cabaret concert Zara Nunn: Live at Zedel, which took place in July. With a four-piece band and six guest singers performing with her, she presented much-loved material from her back-catalogue as well as four World Premiere performances of new songs written especially for the event. Her much awaited return to Zedel’s, originally due to take place in the late Spring of 2020, whilst temporarily postponed because of the pandemic and aftermath, will hopefully take place some time in 2023.
In 2017 she received her first funding award from the PRS for music Foundation also via their Open Fund for music creators, which, with additional funding from Arts Council England and support from the Old Vic Lab enabled her to write, compose, orchestrate, musically direct, produce and showcase the first draft of her new show In Versions. This one-act musical was written during a five-week period in March 2017 and was subsequently followed by a week’s workshop with six actors and a final off-book industry showcase performance which also featured a six-piece live band, with Zara at the helm.
ABOUT ZARA
Zara is a twice PRS awarded composer, writer, lyricist, orchestrator, songwriter and live performance artist. In addition to her well-established career as a much sought after contemporary musical theatre writer, she works across multiple disciplines including writing music for straight plays, media, cabaret, comedy, production, classical, choral and broadcast.
Zara’s music and lyrics have been described as ‘deceptively intricate, sublime, witty, intimate, funny, moving, thought-provoking, superb.’
Alongside her professional composing and musical direction engagements, Zara spent over twenty years working extensively in music and theatre education where she specialised in major large-scale devising and performance projects both in the UK (including for many of the leading drama schools) and internationally. You can find a detailed list of her Visiting Professional and Education work credits here.
LATEST HIGHLIGHTS
Zara was Composer and Sound Designer on a seven-part web series called Bertie, an entertaining education series exploring climate change and the environment that premiered in April 2022, commissioned and produced by Little Angel Theatre. (All episodes available here).
She is also currently writing and developing a new children’s musical, and is continuing work on Moving Water, an audio musical drama (with sound design by Gareth Fry), which completed it’s first stage of developement in 2021 and for which she was one of eleven recipients of funding from the Fusion Fund, via Help Musicians UK (2020). At the end of 2020 she also received a large grant from Arts Council England’s Develop Your Creative Practice funding stream to spend the first quarter of 2021 working towards developing a broader focus in the broadcast media composing & production music space.
During lockdown 2020 Zara wrote, composed, produced and edited FLOMO, a musical comedy short, co-directed by Joyce Branagh, with sound design by Gareth Fry, featuring Gary Willmot. It was shortlisted for the BBC Culture in Quarantine Series 2020 (BBC Arts and The Space).
In October of 2020 she composed the score for Reach For the Stars, produced by Little Angel Theatre inspired by Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space. he show embarked on its second tour including summer performances in partnership with Manchester Literature Festival.
Zara’s musical In These Walls, which is currently in the first-stage of development and was selected for BEAM 2020, was presented to industry at the rescheduled event in September 2021.
In 2019 she was commissioned by The Canales Project and the University of Wolverhampton in partnership with the United Nations Decade of Women to write a song for the Hear Her Song initiative. Having received its world premiere in the States in May, Zara performed the UK premiere of Santa Rosa Sunset at the gala performance in Wolverhampton in June.
Earlier that year she completed work on a commission for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) who asked her to write six new pieces for percussion and piano accompaniment to be published in their 2020 exam syllabus (for Grades 1, 3, 4 & 5). They are still part of the current sylllabus in 2023 and are available for purchase from all music retailers.
In 2018 she commendably received her second funding award from the PRS for Music Foundation via their Open Fund for music creators for her debut cabaret concert Zara Nunn: Live at Zedel, which took place in July. With a four-piece band and six guest singers performing with her, she presented much-loved material from her back-catalogue as well as four World Premiere performances of new songs written especially for the event. Her much awaited return to Zedel’s, originally due to take place in the late Spring of 2020, whilst temporarily postponed because of the pandemic and aftermath, will hopefully take place some time in 2023.
In 2017 she received her first funding award from the PRS for music Foundation also via their Open Fund for music creators, which, with additional funding from Arts Council England and support from the Old Vic Lab enabled her to write, compose, orchestrate, musically direct, produce and showcase the first draft of her new show In Versions. This one-act musical was written during a five-week period in March 2017 and was subsequently followed by a week’s workshop with six actors and a final off-book industry showcase performance which also featured a six-piece live band, with Zara at the helm.