Summary

Follow Sani’s journey as he shares his residency experience and explores the challenges of lockdown through improvisation, experimentation and pure resilience.

international opera singer, creative director and exponent of art Sani has appeared in Opera and most forms of music theatre, film, radio and television in many parts of the world including touring with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Longborough Opera. Recent credits include the Olivier award-winning production of Porgy and Bess and Britten’s War Requiem (2018) for the English National Opera and Dutch National Opera in 2019.  

In 2011, Sani co-founded the GAFA Arts Collective (GAC), London’s first Samoan arts collective and he is the creative director & producer. The collective is a cross-cultural and disciplinary group of London-based artists primarily focused on Samoan Art practice and culture reflecting ancestral roots. In 2016, The GAC were granted the honour of representing Samoa at the Festival of Pacific Arts. 

Sani is also a theatre-maker and writer. In 2018 Sani wrote the play ‘Talune’ in remembrance of the Samoan victims of the flu pandemic of 1918. It premiered at NZ House in London to much acclaim. His other theatre works include ‘The Third Country’ for the Royal Court in 2015, his play with songs ‘Kava Girls’ was ‘Pick of the Edinburgh Fringe’ 2014, and Baba the Bad baboon’ 2017, a musical for younger audiences is now an audio book. Sani’s writing for the stage takes strength from his Samoan/Pasefika heritage.