Featuring Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, North Indian classical singer Mahamaya Shil and Yousuf Ali Khan (Bangladesh) on tabla, first in a series of monthly Fridaynight performances with outstanding improvising musicians from around the world.
Grand Union has created a ground-breaking programme of monthly Friday night performances, exchanging and combining different musical traditions, featuring internationally-celebrated artists with a 5-strong ‘house band’. These are followed by open workshops on Saturday mornings for local musicians to meet and work with them, exploring how their tradition can link to jazz and improvisation, finishing with a short public performance.
Other Grand Union musicians include: Louise Elliott (tenor saxophone, flute); Gerry Hunt (guitar, soprano sax, violin); Andres Lafone (bass guitar); Paul Clarvis(percussion); composer/director Tony Haynes (piano, trombone).
Friday May 4th GRAND UNION ORCHESTRA – TRADING ROOTS
Featuring Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth, North Indian classical singer Mahamaya Shil and tabla maestro Yousuf Ali Khan (Bangladesh), first in the series of monthly Friday night performances featuring musicians from around the world.
Saturday May 5th GRAND UNION ORCHESTRA – OPEN WORKSHOP
Practical hands-on workshop exploring techniques of Indian classical music, for reasonably able musicians of all ages, led by internationally-known Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth as part of Grand Union’s Trading Roots residency.
Time: 11am – 2pm (open public performance 1.30pm) Participation free, bring an instrument
This programme aims to bring together and demonstrate the wide range of music and musicians flourishing in East London today. Most of the musicians involved in Trading Roots are first generation migrants, with unique skills in music from around the world to share and pass on to others; hence the title, suggesting also voyages of discovery. This is an important part of Grand Union’s mission, and to put this principle into practice we have set up the Second Generation Orchestra. Each of these gigs therefore will feature also a guest young musician.
Full programme:
Friday May 4th, 8.00pm – Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth and North Indian classical singer Mahamaya Shil, with Yousuf Ali Khan (Bangladesh) on tabla
Saturday 5th, 11am–2pm: open workshop in Indian classical music
Friday June 1st, 8.00pm – steel pan virtuoso Daniel Louis (St Lucia) and South African trumpeter Claude Deppa
Saturday 2nd, 11am–2pm: open workshop in Caribbean and township music
Friday July 6th, 8.00pm–Zhu Xiao Meng (gu zheng – Chinese harp) and Ruijun Hu (dizi, xiao – Chinese flutes), with Shanti Jayasinha (trumpet, cello)
Saturday 7th, 11am–2pm: open workshop in Chinese traditional and court music
Friday August 3rd, 8.00pm – series finale featuring musicians from What the River Brings and the GUO Summer School
Saturday 4th, 11am–2pm: open workshop in South American music
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Saturday May 5th GRAND UNION ORCHESTRA – OPEN WORKSHOP
Practical hands-on workshop exploring techniques of Indian classical music, for reasonably able musicians of all ages, led by internationally-known Carnatic violinist Jyotsna Srikanth as part of Grand Union’s Trading Roots residency (see May 4th), supported by the Vortex Foundation.
Time: 11am – 2pm (open public performance 1.30pm)
Participation free, bring an instrument