Sign up for email updates
Mantra: Musical Conversations Across the Indian Ocean
The Orlando Consort with Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Shahid Khan
Kuljit Bhamra, tabla player
Shahid Khan with Matthew Venner from The Orlando Consort
The Orlando Consort with Shahid Khan
Jonathan Mayer, sitar player
The inspiration for this collaborative project is sublime Iberian and Indian music from the early 1500s. Portuguese missionaries and Goan Indians joined together in music as churches, built in the exotic land known as the 'Pearl of the Orient', resounded to the extraordinary blended sounds of Europe and Asia. These award-winning musicians re-create this historic cross-cultural encounter and apply their collective experiences to create a radical and challenging new dialogue for the 21st century.
The musicians worked with young people aged 11 - 14 throughout the country to inform them about this project and to teach musical compositions which were performed as part of the Mantra public concerts.
The following schools took part in the project:
All Saints School, York
King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds
Horsington Primary School, Salisbury (additional to official tour)
Chosen Hill Comprehensive School, Cheltenham
Chasetown Specialist Sports College, Staffordshire
Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Brighton
Bristol Cathedral Choir School
Redbridge Community School, Southampton
Trinity Church of England High School, Manchester
Egglescliffe School, Stockton-on-Tees
This National tour opened at the NCEM on Thursday 7 May and was supported by Arts Council England and the PRS Foundation for New Music. Its tour schedule was as follows:
| 7 May 2009 National Centre for Early Music Box Office: 01904 658338 15 May 2009 Bury St Edmunds Festival Box Office: 01284 769505 31 May 2009 Salisbury International Arts Festival Box Office: 0845 241 9651 4 July 2009 Cheltenham Music Festival Box Office: 0844 576 7979 12 July 2009 Lichfield Festival Box Office: 01543 412121 2 August 2009 The Lake District Summer Music Festival Box Office: 0845 644 214 |
23 October 2009 St George's Bristol Box Office: 0845 402 4001 4 November 2009 Turner Sims, University of Southampton Box Office: 023 8059 5151 6 November 2009 Brighton Early Music Festival Box Office: 01273 709709 9 November 2009 RNCM, Manchester Box Office: 0161 907 5555 20 February 2010 Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham Box Office: 0115 846 7777 11 March 2010 The Sage Gateshead Box Office: 0191 4434661 |
More information about The Orlando Consort and Kuljit Bhamra is available at www.orlandoconsort.com and www.kuljitbhamra.com
There is also a Mantra Education Resource available from the Learning Resources section of this site. It was developed by the National Centre for Early Music to help Key Stage 3 music teachers explore with their pupils some of the musical inspirations behind this project.
Subscribe to our feed