LEWES MUSIC OF INDIA CONCERTS

Fresh from exploring some of the mysteries of Tantra, THE GENERALIST is now engaging with the Music of India on behalf of Krishna's Flute, a music promotions company with a difference – a partnership between artist Andrew Wood and prop maker Russell Beck, who share a common interest in bringing the best of world music to a wider audience. This series of concerts at Pelham House in Lewes will be the chance to see and hear some world-class virtuoso musicians at first hand. Should be exciting.

GAURAV MAZUMDAR, who will be accompanied by Shahbaz Hussain on Tabla grew up in a family of well-known musicians from Allahabad and later studied and trained under the legendary master Ravi Shankar. He has subsequently built a global reputation as not only one of the premier sitar players of his generation but also as one of the world’s foremost and versatile Indian musicians.

As well as performing recitals with other leading Indian players, he has also collaborated with the composer Philip Glass, composed and performed with the English Chamber Orchestra and written the music for the ballet 'Siddhartha', based on the book by Herman Hesse.

He became the first Indian musician to perform at the Vatican, where he played his raga ‘Akanksha’ during a concert to celebrate the new millennium. His album ‘Orion’ was recorded live at a concert in the Acropolis in Greece to commemorate the Olympics in 2004.

Other albums featuring his classical, collaborative and compositional works include ‘Echoes from India', 'In Search of Peace', 'Neemrana', 'Soul Strings' and the Grammy-nominated 'East Meets West'. He devotes a substantial amount of his time teaching disciples from all over the world. He is currently composer in residence at MILAP (Liverpool Festival of Culture).

See: 'Raga Charukeshi' with Gaurav Mazumdar (sitar) and Broto Roy on tabla on YouTube

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8th /7.30pm Tickets £15/concs £12

Popularly known as the NIZAMI BROTHERS, Shakir Ali, Tahir Ali and Mahir Ali Nizami Qawwal got their childhood training from accompanying their famous father, the late Jaffar Hussain Nizami, and are now considered amongst the leading Qawwali musicians of today.

They will be performing in Lewes with a choir of 11 singers from Delhi.

Showered with numerous awards, titles and medals in India and Pakistan, the Nizami Brother’s recordings are best-sellers throughout the Indian subcontinent. Following in the footsteps of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who first introduced Qawwali music to an international audience, they have become world ambassadors for this 700-year old musical tradition.

See the Nizami Brothers on YouTube

Qawwali is a form of Sufi devotional music, its name deriving from the Arabic word Qual meaning “utterance (of the prophet). Its central themes are love, devotion and longing for the Divine. The Lewes concert will be a rare chance to see a Qawwali performance of what has been memorably described as ‘14th-century soul music’. It is an experience not to be forgotten, as the musicians steadily build up hypnotic sounds and high energy rhythms that produce trance-like states in audience and players alike.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21st /7.30pm. Tickets £18/concs £15

Krishnamurti Sridhar , who is performing with Sanjay Jhalla on tabla, is a leading virtuoso on the sarod, which is considered one of the world’s most complex instruments. He began training on the instrument when he was five, became the youngest member ever of Ravi Shankar's orchestral group seven years later, and started performing solo whilst still in his teens.

His musical mastery and training in both of India’s leading classical music traditions allows him to bridge the gap between the Hindustani music of the North and the Carnatic of the South to create profound and illuminating music that enriches both. Sridhar gives his Sufi guru the main credit for giving his music a quality he describes as “an aspiration towards spiritual bliss."

Since 1982, he has given hundreds of concerts worldwide, many under the auspices of WOMAD, and has made 13 recordings for European, Middle Eastern, and American record companies, including the album ‘Shrinigar’ on Peter Gabriel’s RealWorld Label. In the process, he has forged exciting links with musicians of many disciplines including Arabic, African, jazz, flamenco, Persian and European classical.

He has also composed numerous film soundtracks - including that for the 1968 French short, ‘Pondichéry, juste avant l'oubli’, which won the prestigious Jean Vigo Award in 1988 - and has conducted seminars in many parts of the world on the art of improvisation and musical creation. He currently divides his time between the USA, Europe, and India.

See: Sarod by Krishnamurti Sridhar 2 on YouTube

SATURDAY DECEMBER 6th 7.30pm. Tickets £15 concs £12

[Tickets from www.ticketweb.co.uk Tel: 0844 477 1000]