The celebrated sitar player performs a special intimate show.
The celebrated UK-based sitar player Roopa Panesar will perform music from her most recent album, ATMA, with an group of the finest Indian classical and jazz musicians in the UK.
ATMA is a rich musical meeting ground; an enticing mix of traditional Indian and western instruments; sitar & tabla beautifully weave and interchange with Double Bass, Guitar, Tanpura & Indian Mouth Harp (Morsing), with electronic textures by Camilo Tirado, plus Kanjira, Jori and Double-Headed Barrel Drum (mridangam).
“One of the most important musicians to have emerged in the British Asian diaspora over the past few years. She expresses a profound sense of calmness laced with an inexplicable exhilaration.” (⭐⭐⭐⭐ Songlines)
Panesar’s ATMA is a journey that beautifully portrays all aspects of life – love, loss, grief, separation and ultimately the bliss of union (in Hinduism ‘atma‘ encapsulates the concept of the eternal self – or soul). After a period of deep personal loss, Roopa wrote this music to echo her feelings associated with challenges of life, with the intention to uplift.
ATMA was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and was made possible as part of Asian Arts Agency’s ‘Breaking Barriers’ music commissioning programme, Innovate.
Born in London and being raised in one of the UK’s most culturally diverse cities, Leicester, afforded Roopa Panesar the opportunity to learn sitar from an early age. At the age of seven, Roopa’s lifelong journey with renowned educationalist and leading UK musician Ustad Dharambir Singh ji MBE started. Ustad Dharambir Singh was a disciple of the late Ustad Vilayat Khan. Roopa was quickly recognized as a talent for the future and remains with her musical guru to this day.
Roopa’s knowledge and skills have also been strengthened by additional training from masters including Pandit Arvind Parikh, Ustad Shahid Parvez, Pt. Buddhaditya Mukherjee and Ustad Bahauddin Dagar. Roopa Panesar proudly joins the modest number of Indian females worldwide who have launched their careers as full-time touring and teaching sitar players.