Alya Al-Sultani is a British-Iraqi dramatic soprano, and composer of new opera. Her first musical experiences were Iraqi folk songs sung by her great grandmother, and radio broadcasts of classical Arabic music. After leaving Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, her family settled in North London.

Her work focuses on integration of a diaspora identity, varied musical loves, the organic beauty of the human voice and the digital hum of modern life, structure and free improvisation.

During her 2022 Residency, Alya developed her opera “Two Sisters“; a full-length opera in one act, with Arabic and English libretto, set on the border between two countries, a no-man’s land in the Middle East, and tells the story of two sisters and their mother.

Credit: Martha Treves