The power of music to bring people together was never more apparent than it was during the pandemic. Global collaborations and digital concerts blurred geographical boundaries like never before. Taking this idea forward is the online music festival Art is Life: SoundFrames, hosted by the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) Bengaluru and the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Boston. Spread over three days, the fest has some of the biggest names of world music coming together for performances, talks and workshops.
A cappella group Penn Masala will perform in the session titled Radical Connexions. “Viewers can expect to hear a fusion of familiar Indian and Western songs in an a capella format. Our performance includes six original mashup compositions,” says Sachit Gali from the band. On the same evening, city-based contemporary classical outfit SubraMania will also play their music. “The performance will be rooted in Indian classical music while including elements of pop, rock, jazz, and more. The idea behind SubraMania was to create original, contemporary world music. And we’re looking forward to sharing it with the world,” Bindu Subramaniam says.
Other notable names on the bill include Grammy-award winner Ricky Kej, fusion act Berklee Indian Ensemble, rapper Artslord and singer Annette Philip from the collective Women of the World. Viewers can also tune into talks and sessions on topics such as cross-cultural collaborations and music as therapy. All the sessions and performances will focus on the overarching theme of music as a unifying force. As Annette sums up, “Both my performances are testaments to the fact that music unites people, and more importantly, that we have so much that we share, no matter what country we are from or what beliefs we may hold. What excites me the most is working with musicians from different cultural backgrounds because the resulting combined art is always richer than if I were to create from a place of homogeneity.”
Entry by registration. December 3-5. Details: Online
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