Tonight: TikTok’s first operatic premiere

Contemporary classical composer Kemal Yusuf will tonight give the premiere of his operatic solo work The Night is In You. The work, written for mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake Edwards will be the first of its kind to be premiered on video sharing platform TikTok at 8pm tonight.

Appropriately chilling for release on Halloween, the work will present an audio-visual struggle between a person of two halves: ‘the night is in you’ and ‘you are there in the night’. Edwards has recorded each melodic line, with recordings cut together to create a seven-part harmony.

Edwards said: ‘I see opera through theatrical lens and it’s really exciting to bend genre and do something completely out of the ordinary, when opera is so often told through such a narrow range of mediums.’

Composer Kemal Yusuf and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake Edwards prepare for tonight's premiere

TikTok is fast becoming a popular platform for the sharing of classical music, with stars like organist Anna Lapwood gaining over 340,000 followers and Warner Classics recent release of an album of TikTok hits. Yusuf is keen to use the platform to reach new audiences, with his most recent video gaining 65,000 views and a recent recruitment by to join Sound On, Tik Tok’s own music marketing and global track distribution.

Yusuf works within a new musical form, self-described as ‘glitch music’, which is reminiscent of the Japanese practice of kingtsugi - repairing broken ceramics with golden glue to celebrate imperfections. Arts Council England are supporting Yusuf’s work developing this form alongside Edwards as well as performers including violinist Darragh Morgan, Ligeti Quartet, and London Oriana Choir.

You can watch the premiere from 8pm tonight here. The work will also be available as a YouTube short after the premiere.