 A festival titled 'The Soul of the Fiddle' is scheduled to be held from March 25 at The Barbican, London.
The programme has three parts representing "the fiddle in traditional cultures". The cultures represented include American Bluegrass, Jewish, Chinese, Moroccan, English, Greek-Anatolian, Hardanger, Indian, Klezmer, Turkish and Moroccan. The programme is in three parts: conference, concert and course.
The soul of the fiddle course includes three days of practical tuition courses in one tradition for proficient/advanced violinists of all backgrounds, led by internationally renowned teachers covering ornamentation, phrasing, repertoire, improvisation and the fiddle's role within a traditional ensemble.
The Soul of the Fiddle is organised by the Jewish Music Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, Royal Academy of Music in collaboration with BBC Radio 3, The Strad, Jewish Chronicle and the programme is titled 'The genius of the Violin - International Violin Festival 2004'.
Balu Raguraman of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London, will be presenting the south Indian fiddle tradition. Born in Bangalore in 1974, Balu Raguraman was initiated into the art of violin playing at a very young age under S Chandrasekhar and later under Neela Ramgopal. He was awarded the Central government scholarship for seven years from 1987. All India Radio (AIR) awarded him the
best violinist award in 1992.
Balu has been performing in the December music season since 1987 and has won many awards from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, the Music Academy and Tamil Isai Sangam. Balu has had the privilege of accompanying some of the masters in the field both in India and abroad. He has toured Germany, USA, Canada, Europe and many other countries with artistes like
Mandolin Srinivas,
M Balamuralikrishna, Prof T V Gopalkrishnan and N Ramani.
Being in the United Kingdom (UK) for over seven years now, Balu has had several unique opportunities in the field of music. He has performed for The Prince's Trust for Prince Charles, in Birmingham and he was selected by Pandit Ravishankar to be in a team of artistes to perform a memorial concert for George Harrison. In his capacity as a resident violin teacher at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London, Balu has earned a unique name for himself as a teacher, performer and composer.
Balu and well known mridangam artiste H S Sudhindra are founder-members of a trust in Bangalore that promotes education in music and conducts interesting and educative concerts and also provides concert experience to many upcoming talented young artistes. Suswaralaya College of Music and Kalashrithakalpaka have set up a fund for emergency medical aid for professional musicians also.
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Festival of violin in London
