Alamkara | Boite World Music Cafe
Riding on the back of a successful 2012, Bridges Collective presents a fresh season of inter- cultural musical collaborations in this year’s concerts. The upcoming concert, ALAMKARA, is the result of collaboration between Artistc Director and pianist Brenna Wee and flautist Asha Henfry. Henfry shares Wee’s particular interest in cross-cultural music and has researched Indian & Japanese influences and adaptations in the contemporary art music genre. They have pulled together musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds including Australian bansuri proponent Owen Colman, Indian-Australian tabla specialist Jay Dabgar and versatile classical/jazz Australian percussionist Callum Moncrieff.
ALAMKARA [Sanskrit; meaning ornamented, decorative] will showcase works by Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, Australian composer Robbie Belgrade, New Zealander Gareth Farr, Malaysian Valerie Ross, as well as a traditional Indian treat from Owen Colman and Jay Dabgar. Shankar’s L’aube Enchantee (The Enchanted Morning) makes accessible to Western audiences the Alap (introductory/slower) and Raga (faster) sections of classical Indian music. Farr’s Kembang Suling explores Asian colours including those from Bali, Japan and India. Ross’s Cycles uses modern harmonies and stretches the traditional boundaries of how the tabla is used in an ensemble, while Belgrade’s Leap of Faith brings together Western and Indian instruments within a popular/jazz form. Audiences will not only be given an insight into traditional Indian music, they will also be taken on a journey to see how this is treated by composers who have merged Indian with Western art elements in their works.
The aim of Bridges Collective is to give Australian audiences the opportunity to hear composers that have expressed their multicultural experiences and journeys through creative works.
