The Bangalore School of Music and Fine Arts presents the 16th East West Music and Dance Encounter

Over 30 Artistes, 14 concerts, 10 Nations and 5 Venues

Music aficionados in Bangalore have much to rejoice over, as The Bangalore School of Music and Fine Arts (BSM) is delighted to announce the launch of the 16th East West Music and Dance Encounter and the closing of the year-long 30th Anniversary Celebrations of the Music School. Beginning from February 3, 2018, EWMD 2018 will be a month-long celebration of the best of classical and contemporary music and dance; both Indian and western and will be held at multiple venues spread across Bangalore to make it a truly city-wide celebration permeating the heart and soul of every Bangalorean. Entry to some of these events is ticketed while for others it is either free or through special passes. Tickets can be bought either from The Bangalore School of Music office (Next to Saint Jude’s Church, CBI Main Road, RT Nagar, 080-41285017) or on bookmyshow.com

Says Vikram Sunderlal, Managing Trustee of The Bangalore School of Music,

‘It was my mother’s dream to make every edition of EWMD bigger and better than the earlier one. Our team has been working for over a year now, to line up international and Indian artistes of great repute and like all its predecessors, EWMD-2018, too will be a celebration of the spirit of Music from the East and West and will feature grand inaugural and closing concerts, solo recitals, workshops, lectures, panel discussions and dialogues between artistes.’

M. R. Jagadeesh, Director-Operations, the Bangalore School of Music adds,

‘The response we received from EWMD 2017 was simply overwhelming and since this is also the official closing of our School’s 30th Anniversary Celebrations, over 30 artistes from the 10 nations, who are participating this year are all celebrities in their own space and our Cultural Partners, Zurich University of the Arts, Swissnex India (Consulate General of Switzerland) Austrian Cultural Forum, Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Alliance Française the Bangalore and Jagriti (Whitefield) have been of invaluable help in artiste co-ordination and hospitality’.

Artistes from several countries come together to participate in scintillating concerts of exceptional brilliance, while seminars and panel discussions on relevant topics bring to fore a better understanding of the cultures of the East and West. Workshops and master-classes by the performing artistes ensure that global music standards of performance and technique are transferred to student musicians to mould them into the next generation of performing artistes and thereby the cycle of growth and evolution continues.

By the end of each Festival, cultural boundaries are melted down, perceptions are bridged and new doors of understanding and friendship are thrown open.

Past artistes have included Polish HeFi Quartet, Swedish Moving Big Band and the Gothenburg Salongs Orchestra, Odissi danseuse, the Late Protima Gauri Bedi, Saxophonist, Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, Veena Exponent, Dr. V. Doraiswamy Iyengar, Hungarian-American Pianist, Lydia Orias, Canadian Soprano, Audrey Leonard Borschel, Swedish Soprano, Helen Larsson, Dr. Suma Sudhindra, Dr. Madhu Natraj and STEM Theatre Dancers, Grammy Awardee, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Tabla Maestro, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Sarod Virtuoso, Amjad Ali Khan, Indian-born Austrian Pianist and Professor, Marialena Fernandes, French Bassoonist, David Chukrov, French Opera Singers, Aude Priya Wicziarg and Jane Camillioni, The Bangalore School of Music Chamber Orchestra, The Bangalore School of Music Choral Ensemble, Bharatnatyam expert, Vani Ganapathy, Guitarist, Konarak Reddy, Violinist, Dr. L. Subramaniam, World Fusion jazz Ensemble, MoonArra, French Celebrity Pianist, Marouan Benabdallah, Duo Sirocco of France and Puducherry Woodwinds, American Guitarist, Rebecca Miller, Northern Europe’s leading Mezzo-Soprano, Ms Maria Forsstrom and many more Western and Indian Artistes of repute.

Spread across venues as Guru Nanak Bhavan, Aruna Sunderlal Auditorium (Bangalore School of Music) Jawahar Bal Bhavan and the Alliance Française de Bangalore, EWMD2018 will span the length and breadth of Bangalore, thereby hoping to take the Festival to just about everyone. Our concert line-up is below.

For more details, please contact the BSM on 080-41285017, write to [email protected] or find all the info you need as well as ‘like’ us on our Facebook page EWMD2018.