The siLk road

A Lecture-Recital Presentation about Musical Exchange between East and West

“An exceptional offering… She established this Eurasian mingling in western classical music, with a very unusual programme of modern and contemporary compositions that resists categorisation... brilliantly deconstructed five composers, making them accessible to the audience, addressing them with charming informality."

- Malini White, The Hindu

Synopsis

The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes that facilitated economic and cultural interactions between the East and West for over a millennium. Although it no longer exists, artistic exchange between the East and West has only intensified as the boundaries between cultures and nations become increasingly blurred. This program presents the music of composers who have been significantly influenced by their Western or Eastern contemporaries, beginning with Debussy’s encounter with Javanese gamelans at the 1889 World Fair in Paris and his consequent fascination with Eastern philosophy, and a similar cultural shift thrown into reverse with Toru Takemitsu’s use of Debussy’s impressionist language to express a Japanese ethos. The second half focuses on two composers of Indian origin, UK-born and Parsi-identifying Kaikhosru Sorabji and US-born Reena Esmail, each of whom expresses their dual ties to India and the West in diametrically opposing ways. I ask the question - how does identity, whether it is constructed by the self or perceived by others, take shape in music?

Catch a sneak peek below!

IN THE PRESS

Scroll, Silk Road music: A Mumbai pianist’s quest for compositions that echo her in-between self

The Hindu, Chelsea de Souza traverses the Silk Road on a musical quest

Mid-Day, Concert pianist Chelsea de Souza’s performance in Mumbai will explore cultural identities in Western classical music

To find out more about this program, or present it at your institution, please contact me for more details.