Borealis commissions 25-year-old composer Susanne Xin to create a new composition.

Xin explores her family’s history of being Vietnamese boat refugees. She combines the visceral trauma of these stories, with her own experiences of being a first generation European. How she mediates between her Vietnamese history, her experiences of racism, and the practicalities of white European musicians performing this very personal and traumatic material. Lullabies for Refugees is performed by YrrY a young international experimental music ensemble amongst a programme of other emerging Norwegian composers. The piece has been developed as part of the Borealis Ung Komponist mentoring scheme to give new perspectives within contemporary classical music.