MUMBAI: EarthSync partners with AC Projects to present The Carnatic Music Ensemble at this year’s Counterflows Festival in Glasgow, UK from 7th to10th April 2016. The showcase features Chennai based violin maestro Dr M. Lalitha Kalaimamani and her guru and mother – vocalist Smt. Subbulakshmi Muthuswamy. This is the first time in the festival’s history that South Indian Carnatic music will be showcased at the prestigious event.

The Counterflows Festival, produced by AC Projects and now in its fifth edition, celebrates underground experimental art and music in all its diversity. This year’s edition marks a special collaboration with EarthSync, showcasing to an international audience the age old tradition of South Indian Carnatic music. “Very often when international audiences think of Indian music, the first thing that comes to mind is North Indian Hindustani Classical” says Dr. Lalitha, who will perform on 10th April as part of the festivities, “We are so excited to be able to share Carnatic music of South India at the festival – the music of my homeland”.

The collaborative effort of AC Projects and EarthSync is aimed at fostering dialogue between contemporary UK based performers and Carnatic musicians, while providing more international platforms for the music and culture of South India. Both AC Projects and EarthSync share the desire to support these traditions of music, providing avenues for it to be recognized by the contemporary music scene as a way to help save some of these traditions from extinction. “The South of India is a cultural epicenter for Carnatic music, a hub of ancient musical traditions that need to be preserved and shared with more audiences worldwide” says EarthSync’s Sonya Mazumdar, “This collaboration is a step towards realizing this vision for the Classical arts, finding interesting ways to keep it relevant and alive in a modern musical context”.

Electronic music pioneer and artist Mark Fell will explore possible ways to collaborate with musicians from the tradition, examining the systems and processes in the context of his digital practice. Mark will attend Counterflows to begin the dialogue with The Carnatic Music Ensemble.

LalithaKalaimamani is an internationally acclaimed Carnatic violin master hailing from an illustrious family of musicians. Her performance at Counterflows Festival takes place on Sunday, 10th April at 10 pm.

 

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Last weekend, Cottingley, home to the British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai, was packed with guests gathered to celebrate the 90th birthday of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, and the 400th death anniversary of playwright, poet and actor, William Shakespeare.

The event, hosted by Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner, showcased vignettes from Queen Elizabeth’s visit to India, especially Madras, and promotions from the Best of Britain to the guests drawn from the worlds of business, academics and the arts.

The evening’s entertainment kicked off with city-based theatre group Stagefright Productions’ five-minute tongue-in-cheek presentation of Romeo and Juliet. The all-girl dance ensemble High Kicks, which performs contemporary dance moves and has won global acclaim, took the stage next. They staged an interactive act to the James Bond theme songs from over the years, with clips and dialogues from the films filling the screen backstage.

Kalaimamani awardees and violinist-sisters, M. Lalitha and M. Nandini, renowned for their Indian as well as Western classical and fusion music, played the national anthems of India and Britain, much to the delight of the audience.

This was followed by a speech and a toast raised to Queen Elizabeth by Joshi, who also commended the resilience of Chennai during the floods.

The evening ended with music from around the globe — Blessing Chimanga and his band played jazz and rock, inspired by their roots in Zimbabwe, where Chimanga started his career as a percussion and piano player. DJ Exodus kept the music flowing with his acoustic and acapella fest.