The Welsh National Opera has released a statement mourning the death of Abdul Shayek, who passed away at the age of 39 due to unexpected natural causes..

The company said, “We are deeply saddened to hear about the death of Abdul Shayek. We had the honor of working with Abdul when he joined us as Associate Director for Migrations, and as Director for our series of short films, Rearrange. Our thoughts are with his loved ones.”

Shayek was the Artistic Director and Joint CEO of Tara Theatre, the oldest global majority-led theatre company in the UK. He was the founding Artistic Director and CEO of FIO and was previously a creative associate at NTW.

In addition to his work at the Welsh National Opera, he also worked with the English National Opera in “Orpheus in the Underworld.”