Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour has been championed by musicians ranging from Leonard Bernstein to the Emerson String Quartet. Lacrimae Beati owes its origin to Mozart’s Requiem and was conceived after a perilous flight in 2002. Darkness in the Ancient Valley, a symphony in five movements inspired by recent events in Iran, utilises a wide range of Persian folk-melodies and Sufi rhythms. A Woman’s Life is a cycle of poems by Maya Angelou which charts a moving trajectory from childhood to old age.