SHAUN NAIDOO’S music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa and Australia. Born in Ladysmith, South Africa in 1962 he composed extensively for the cabaret, musical theater, and modern dance stages in the 1980s. During this period he was closely associated with Shifty Records and released three records in collaboration with Warrick Swinney, including the“found” opera Season of Violence (1990) which received an Honorable Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica in 1992. He settled in California in 1990 and is currently an Associate Professor of Composition at ChapmanUniversity Conservatory of Music.

His music has been performed at festivals and halls throughout the United States, Europe and South Africa, including performances at Carnegie Hall, the Konzerhaus (Berlin), Lincoln Theater (Miami Beach, Florida), Redcat Theater (Los Angeles), Japan America Theater (Los Angeles), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Maybeck Recital Hall (San Francisco), PianoSpheres (Pasadena, California), Ernest Bloch Music Festival (Oregon), Edinburgh Festival, Zabalaza Festival (London), Colly Soleri Music Center (Arcosanti, Arizona), SEAMUS festival (Kansas City, Missouri), Kansas City Electronic Music Festival, SCREAM festival (Los Angeles), Ussachevsky Festival (Claremont, California), Market Theater (Johannesburg, South Africa), Jazzart Center (Cape Town, South Africa), South African National Festival of the Arts, Resistance Fluctuations Festival (Los Angeles), Green Umbrella Series (Los Angeles) and the FaultLines Emergency Festival (Los Angeles).

Ensembles who have performed his music include the California EAR Unit, the German Ensemble Compania, the New World Symphony, Ensemble Green, FearNoMusic, the Thornton Percussion Ensemble, and the CalArts Percussion Ensemble. His music has been released by Capstone Records (New York), Island Records (New York), New World Records/C.R.I. (New York), and Shifty Records (South Africa).

Naidoo’s extremely varied compositional output includes numerous ElectroAcoustic works, such as the acclaimed Bad Times Coming and Waking in the Dirt, both of which can be found on CRI. In 2004 his CD Smoke and Mirrors was released by Evander Music (Oakland, CA). His most recent CD Electric Fences - featuring the Oregon based ensemble FearNoMusic - can be found on Capstone Records.

His music has consistently received critical acclaim. In 2005 the Los AngelesTimes stated that Naidoo is a composer who “entices human-like response from his computer”. During the late 1980s the Johannesburg Citizen named him “one of the brightest lights in the South African musical firmament” and the Johannesburg Star identified him as “the leading composer for modern dance in South Africa”. The Weekly Mail called Season of Violence “powerful, inventive and challenging”. More recently the Los Angeles Weekly described his music as “a hoot, and a delight” and added that he is a composer “…worth watching”.