Wasfi Kani

Wasfi Kani (born London, 7 March 1956) is the founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera.

Kani was born in Cable Street in London's East End where her parents lived after leaving India at partition. She attended Harry Gosling Primary School until 1962 when the family moved to Kilburn, London.

Kani played the violin in the National Youth Orchestra and went on to study music at St Hilda's College, Oxford (197579).

Pimlico Opera Pimlico Opera was founded in 1987 by Wasfi Kani and was the first opera company to specialise in performing in places such as hospitals, country houses, banks and prisons. In 1991 the company was awarded Arts Council funding: today it receives no public subsidy.

The work in prison began in 1989 when the company performed full-scale operas with orchestra in Wormwood Scrubs prison: The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), The Bear (Walton). In 1991 came the first collaboration with prisoners: Sweeney Todd (Sondheim) with D-wing lifers from the Scrubs.

In November 1992, the collaboration with Wandsworth Prison, Guys & Dolls, was the subject of a BBC2 documentary "Guys, Dolls & D wing" which was nominated for a BAFTA. A 99-year lease from the Mary Roxburghe Trust, into which Bamber Gascoigne placed his inheritance, has been agreed.

With four tiers of seating in a horseshoe shape (modelled on La Scala, Milan), the Theatre in the Woods is designed to target an optimum acoustic reverberation of 1.4 seconds.

Singers who have performed with the company include Bryn Terfel, Simon Keenlyside, Joseph Calleja, Claire Rutter, Rachel Nicholls, Bryan Register, Susan Gritton, Wynne Evans, Sally Matthews, Alfie Boe, Robert Poulton, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, Sara Fulgoni, Clive Bayley and Alastair Miles. The festival has also included musicals with productions of Fiddler on the Roof in 2015 and Oliver! in 2016. Fiddler on the Roof was subsequently staged in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2015 BBC Proms.

Honours, awards and fellowships Kani was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the arts.

Honorary Doctorate: Southampton University2011

Honorary Doctorate: Winchester University2016

Honorary Fellow of The Royal Institute of British Architects2017

Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford2017