News and Reviews

News: sinfonia ViVA makes London Debut
May 2009

sinfonia ViVA will cement its growing reputation as a national orchestra based in the East Midlands with its London debut at Kings Place on May 23.

The Orchestra, will perform at Kings Place as part of the venue's 'East Meets West' festival – joined by North India's star violinist Kala Ramnath who originally performed 'Seasons' – her own improvised work fusing South American and South Asian music - alongside the ViVA and 180 local school pupils during a Derby-based education project in 2007.

ViVA Chief Executive, Peter Helps explained: "It is wholly appropriate that our debut concert in London should feature work that was first pioneered through an education programme here in the East Midlands – showing the unique diversity of the Orchestra. Our profile in the 'East Meets West' festival at Kings Place and the challenging nature of the programme, bringing together different musical genres, will be an opportunity to show the London audiences that the East Midlands is certainly alive and kicking when it comes to pushing the classical music boundaries."

Kala Ramnath is one of the stars of Indian classical music. Described as 'a musician of giant-like qualities' by Jazzwise magazine, she is a leading figure of the Mewati Gharana, a school of music and dance that goes back to the 16th century.

She explained: "When I first played with sinfonia ViVA in Derby, I could see the limitless possibilities of the meeting of the two musical systems, bringing out the best in both. Indian music has ragas or melodic scales for each time of the day, and for every season, and I thought why not use this to evoke the six Indian seasons, along the lines of Vivaldi's and Piazzolla's four seasons? The structure of Indian music grows more from melody than harmony, so by bringing it together with Western music I can create special harmonic blends with the melody as I improvise over the orchestra."

Beyond the music's aesthetic and sensual appeal, Ramnath attributes a philosophical importance to the fusion: "With the current political scenarios around the world, we need music to bring humanity together: it transcends distinctions between cultures, languages and faiths … I believe we should take these 'Seasons' everywhere."

Media enquiries: Sarah Jenkin-Jones - Tel: 01332 515102/07951 945 665 sarah@jjpublicrelations.co.uk