Shillong librettist
Concert pianist Neil Nongkynrih's first rendezvous with opera – Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten at London's English National Opera House, in 1990 – was unfulfilling. In fact, he hated it. 'The first time it did not hit me – didn't sound profound to me. But gradually I grew to love it,' smiles Nongkynrih, who grew up in Meghalaya but studied music at Guildhall School of Music and Trinity College in Britain. He has since come to renown as a concert pianist and versatile teacher, working on an eclectic range of music including piano. One of his pupils – the English musician Philip Selway, best known as the drummer for the rock group Radiohead – has won the US Grammy Award multiple times.
Nongkynrih's first public piano performance in the UK was in the presence of British royalty, which inevitably led to additional European recitals. But his inquietude eventually brought him back to his roots in the Indian Northeast. There, he branched out into composing, writing music for both opera and choir. In 2001, he took a sabbatical, coming back to his hometown of Shillong after 13 years in London. There, suddenly, he realised his sojourn in England was over: It was time to give back to his own society.