Manasamitra: The Open Fund for Organisations
Teahouses is a reimagining of the tea ceremony, explored through music, visuals and taste. It draws on Supriya Nagarajan’s experience of synaesthesia. The project will combine three large-scale performances with around fifteen smaller-scale teahouse conversation events in cafes, galleries, community centres and other public places. Performances will combine Carnatic (South Indian) raga with live electronics and improvisation, live visuals and a tea ceremony to create an immersive environment. During teahouse events, participants will experience a small-scale tea ceremony, record sensory experiences and experiences of tea-drinking: these recordings will feed into the performance as soundscape and stimuli for composition/improvisation.
This project will bring together five talented music creators from across the North of England. Carnatic singer/composer and Manasamitra director Supriya Nagarajan will build on her ongoing collaboration with composer/sound artist Duncan Chapman and contemporary classical composer, countertenor and multi-instrumentalist James Cave. Supriya founded the Dewsbury-based arts organisation Manasamitra in 2005 in order to bring together Indian arts with other artistic genres in order to create new vocabularies, promote inter-cultural dialogue and develop creative partnerships. Manasamitra has toured extensively across the UK and Europe, developing ongoing UK partnerships including Sage Gateshead, York NCEM, Ultima Festival, Oslo, and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. Cave has a a particular interest in combining Indian classical music with contemporary music and jazz, having studied this tradition with sarangi master Dhruba Ghosh. They will work with experienced drummer/improviser Joost Hendrickx from global music collective Kefaya, and Persian classical percussionist Arian Sadr.