As a composer he has often been commissioned to compose pieces for national and international competitions. His works have been performed in Russia, Canada, the States and Germany as well as other countries. Reid Anderson, Artistic Director of the Stuttgart Ballet and the world's foremost exponent of John Cranko's ballets choreographed his "Four Romantic Piano Pieces" which became a hit of the Alberta Ballet. In 1996 Southern African Music Rights Organisation SAMRO commissioned Surendran together with six other composers each to write a movement of a larger oratorio dealing with issues arising out of the Human Right's Treaty and intended as a gift from South Africa to the Olympic Games held at Atlanta in that year. His movement is entitled "Masakane" (Let Us Build Together) and the orchestral version of the piece was premiered on 23 March 2000 by the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in Durban. His piece "Toccata for John Roos" was performed at the 11th Unisa International Piano Competition in Pretoria in 2008.
