- This event has passed.
Orion Series Lecture: Sandeep Bhagwati, composer and researcher
Thursday, January 18 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Orion Series in Fine Arts guest, Sandeep Bhagwati, presents the lecture:
Aerial Root Systems. The Idea and Reality of Nature and its Ramifications into Music
Nature as a humanist concept, as a romantic utopia, and as a sonic reality has had a varied presence in the history of musicking. In this lecture, Bhagwati will trace the complex relationships of eurological composers, performers, and audiences to changing ideas of nature. Why do some musickers aim to transcend the limits of nature, while others yearn to listen to it as it is or was? What do ideas about the “natural” have to do with musical misogyny or racist conceptions of jazz and indigenous music? Is Europe’s classical music born from the same impulse that fuelled European capitalism and colonialism? What could be creative responses to the central insights of the Anthropocene discourse?
BIOGRAPHY
Sandeep Bhagwati is a composer, poet, researcher, director, and artist. His compositions and comprovisations (including 6 operas) are regularly performed worldwide. Many of his works are evening-length multi-arts projects in which he writes, directs, and conducts. He has founded, curated and directed new music festivals in Munich, Berlin and Karlsruhe, as well as long-term inter-traditional projects with Asian musicians and European ensembles [Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, Klangforum Wien etc.]. He is a prolific writer on music and artistic research as well as a sought-after keynote speaker. Since 2000 he was professor at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and guest composer/professor at important orchestras and universities worldwide. In 2006, he moved to Montréal as the Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Art Theory and Practice at Concordia University, where he still researches and teaches and is founder of matralab. Since 2013, he is artistic director of “Ensemble Extrakte” Berlin (2022 renamed “Ensemble Sabdagatitara”), and the first ensemble for experimental Hindustani Music “Sangeet Prayog” Pune. From 2018-22, he led the international research network TENOR -Technologies of Notation and Representation. Since 2020 he is also co-editor of the journal “Turba – The Journal for Global Practices in Live Arts Curation”. The 2023/24 concert season will be celebrated in Quebec as a “Série Hommage” — a tribute to his multi-faceted oeuvre.