Music for the Mind & Soul: An Inner Voice | Perseverance
Saturday 27th January 2018, 1pm
Capstone Theatre, Liverpool
Free Admission
First Half: AN INNER VOICE by Kobini Ananth and Yarlinie Thanabalasingham
Two young, talented and upcoming artists come together to create an innovative piece experimenting with a notion rarely used within Carnatic music – harmonies. Pulling away from improvisation and turning their attention to composition, An Inner Voice presents the various characteristics of harmonies and how they can be adapted to fit within the Raga structure. This has rarely been explored before due to the music’s complex rhythmic nature and strict composition structure and therefore this new and innovative piece is unique and radical in its approach.
Carnatic music is predominantly taught and performed as solo music and where there are duets, it is synchronised in composition and the only divergent is in improvisation. Here, these two talented artists appreciate their different identities and ideas within the music to create a whole new composition that reflects their own journeys.
Yarlinie and Kobini are two very talented upcoming Carnatic vocalists in their own right. Both learning South Asian classical music since the tender ages of eight and have since achieved major accomplishments, recognitions and awards within the sector. Yarlinie was recently awarded the ‘Sangeeth Ratna’ award and are both also members of the national ensemble Tarang (their fellow Tarang member Sanjurran Keerthikumar will join the duo on mridangam for this concert). They are artists with a new vision to portray and through harmonies they showcase progression within Carnatic music.
You can listen to an excerpt from An Inner Voice here.
Artists: Kobini Ananth (vocals), Yarlinie Thanabalasingham (vocals), Sanjurran Keerthikumar (mridangam)
Second Half: PERSEVERANCE by Jonathan Mayer
Perseverance explores the vulnerability of hope –in a world embroiled in harsh severity, where beautifying is its only hope to survive it. Jonathan Mayer picks this important theme as way of claiming south Asian classical music is very much a contemporary musical genre which can be used to create new material about important issues and subjects. “Music should allow you think about the world around you, not just sound pretty.”
Jonathan hopes the work pioneers progression within Indian Classical Music and more musicians step forward to explore expression through this music genre with its rich tradition and heritage.
“Many Indian music collaboration projects in the past have looked towards bridging cultural gaps while not focusing on development within the genre. We are looking at specific Indian classical elements to see how we can create new material”.
– Jonathan Mayer
You can listen to an excerpt from Perseverance here.
Artists: Jonathan Mayer (sitar), Steve Tromans (piano), Tymoteusz Jozwiak (drums), Mitel Purohit (tabla)
This concert is produced on partnership with Zer0classikal.
The zerOclassikal commissions engage British born and/or trained artists to expand and radicalise the boundaries of South Asian Classical music. Each artist developed their work through questioning the traditions, experimenting new ideas and platforming progression.