Here we have a preview covering the end of the year with not a mention of Christmas, so, should you want to escape the tinsel and fairy lights and experience something completely different, check out these events.
Saturday, 28th September sees Memories As Harmonies at Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton, Leeds, a double bill of music and dance.
By His Flute is a traditional Kathak dance recital by Mitul Sengupta accompanied by live musicians which weaves dance, music and spirituality.
Threading Distant Voices, the second piece, began life as a research project with Yorkshire Dance and has evolved into a performance piece. It unites voices from different cultures, exploring the emotions of individuals, reflecting on shared experiences and connections between them.
I have already previewed this next event for Opera North but it is well worth a repeat. Thursday, 10th October is the date to catch sitar player, Jasdeep Singh Degun, at Howard Assembly Room where he will be performing as part of his national tour, which culminates in an appearance in the Darbar Festival at the Barbican in London.
Jasdeep has won many prestigious awards, the most impressive being the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Best Instrumentalist, the first sitar player and British Asian musician to do so. For those of you who don’t live within a commute of Leeds then you can check out the rest of his dates at https://www.jasdeepsinghdegun.com/ where you can also listen to some of his music and watch the official video of Lament.
Wednesday, 16th October is the date to experience Travel Light, at Chapel FM in Seacroft. It brings together a diverse group of artists: musicians, poets and sound and lighting designers under Musical Director Christella Litras, with the aim of paying homage to John Smeaton.
Smeaton was a civil engineer who designed and built the Eddystone Lighthouse, thus enabling a safe passage for ships carrying goods around the world. It not only covers the trade in spices, gems and gold etc, but also looks at the history of human trafficking. It takes us on a journey from Leeds to India via the trade route of the time calling at Spain, West Africa, the Cape of Good Hope and Madagascar.
It is back to Seven Arts on Friday, 18th October for Raga@7, part of Red Violin Festival. It features two violin maestros with Kamalbir Singh playing in Hindustani (North Indian) style and Vijay Venkat performing Carnatic (South Indian).
There is also a pre-show talk exploring the history behind the Indian Violin and looking at the differences between the European and Indian versions of the instrument.
Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated on Saturday, 2nd November at Howard Assembly Room with (Māyā) Illusion.
The piece is called Songs for the Soul and is a new work by Rushil Ranjan and Abi Sampa, commissioned by Manchester Camerata. It melds the sounds of Western classical orchestra with the aforementioned Carnatic music.
Mishra take to the stage at Seven, Chapel Allerton, on Saturday, 30th November for another in the Raga@7 series. They are a global folk band featuring fusion vocalist Deepa Shakthi. It combines Mishra’s UK folk and Indian classical influences with Deepa’s Sulfi singing.
So, that takes us up to the turn of the year, by which time I hope you will be better acquainted with the music of this amazingly diverse arts company.
For more details of the concerts, other events and the organisation as a whole, as well as to book, please go to https://www.saa-uk.org/
Images provided by South Asian Arts
Tyke It To The Limit 