| About
the Musicians |
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Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov
Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
The Russian music legend has
produced more than 50 albums since the formation of his legendary
band Aquarium in 1972. His music over the years has incorporated
a range of styles, from folk and blues to translucent acoustics
- and includes a whole slew of various ethnic and folklore influences.
As a young student in the Soviet Union he started experimenting
with poetry, music and theatre - merging Eastern philosophies
and traditional Russian themes. His big break came in 1980,
when he was invited to perform at the Tbilisi Rock Festival.
Although his band was officially banned by the State following
the festival his underground profile continued to rise sharply
over the next 7 years until Perestroika ushered in a new era
of opportunity. Boris became the first Russian musician to record
in the West.
In
Russia he can sell out any stadium. With his smoky tenor voice
he continues to 'express the inexpressable' in a lyrical language
that has earned him the affectionate title, "Poet Laureate
of Russia". When he performs to non-Russian speaking
audiences he says, "There are things that are universal
enough that every person who listens will perk up their ears".
In
1989 he was the subject of "The Long Way Home,"
a film by Michael Apted documenting Grebenshikov's struggle
to record his album "Radio Silence" with Dave Stewart
of Eurythmics.
In
February, 2006 Grebenshikov met the Indian spiritual teacher
Sri Chinmoy who blessed him with the name Purushottama, which
relates to the one who is beyond all limitations. In May 2007,
inspired by Sri Chinmoy, Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov performed
with his band Aquarium to a capacity audience at the Royal
Albert Hall.
"There
is a great silence inside of everybody, the source of all
inspiration, of everything. I always prefer to let music speak
for itself and then the human puppet has no further words".
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Sheema Mukherjee
Sitar
Sheema
Mukherjee began her study of North Indian classical music at
the age of five with the giudance of one of the greatest classical
vocalists, Ustad Amir Khan. She was presented a sitar at the
age of nine by her illustrious uncle, Pandit Nikhil Banerjee,
under whom she began her study of the sitar.
She
continued her study with Aashish Khan and Dhyanesh Khan in
Kolkata, India. After the death of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee
in 1986 she began studying with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Sheema
is currently studying with Indian Classical Musicologist,
Kishore Chakrabarty, who is based in Kolkata.
Sheema
Mukherjee has presented lecture demonstrations on Indian classical
music for many schools and universities, including the Guildhall
School of Music, and worldwide for the British Council and
Womad. Ideas were encouraged around music being an international
language and the flexibility and use of Indian music within
other forms e.g. dance, jazz, African, Irish and Arabic. Traditional
Indian classical music teaching methods were always used.
Since
then she has been a consultant for Thames Valley University
in setting up their Indian music courses and continues to
do presentations on Indian classical music in the UK and worldwide.
The workshops include 'hands-on' Indian music practice techniques
for improvement and improvisation, and also Raag theory
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Premik Russell Tubbs
Flute
Premik Russell Tubbs lives in New York City. He is a multi-instrumentalist
flutist, saxophonist & lap steel guitarist as well as being
a composer and producer. He heads two new East-West fusion bands,
Bangalore Breakdown and Gandharva Quartet. He has worked with
Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin
and Ravi Shankar and is equally at home in pop, jazz, folk,
R&B, new age and experimental styles. In
1974 Premik joined with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu
Orchestra in the making of the album Visions of the Emerald
Beyond. This involved tours of Europe and the U.S. The U.S.
tour proved a remarkable pairing up of both Mahavishnu and
the Jeff Beck Group where he worked alongside Jean-Luc Ponty,
bassist Ralph Armstrong and Narada Michael Walden on drums.
In the 80's Premik played with Lonnie Liston-Smith, jazz keyboardist
with the highly successful album Dreams of Tomorrow. Premik
was chosen as Smith's saxophonist/flutist for the next two
years of touring and recording, playing at venues throughout
the U.S., Great Britain, and the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
During this time, Premik recorded on two of Lonnie's albums:
Silhouettes and Rejuvenation with the great bassist Cecil
McBee.
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Maria Pomianowska
Sarangi
Maria graduated in cello at the Chopin Academy of Music
in Warsaw. As a student at the Academy, she was granted a scholarship
to learn the sarangi under the guidance of maestro Pandit Ram
Narayan in India. However, her instrumental repertoire is not
limited to the sarangi; she also plays a collection of string
instruments from around the world including the Bulgarian gadulka,
Turkish Rabab, Iranian kemanche, Mongolian morin-chur and Chinese
erhu - for over 25 years she has been studying the playing of
these Asian instruments, travelling to India, China, Korea,
Mongolia, Japan and Middle East. Her musical experience enabled
her to take the leading role in reconstructing the art of creating,
tuning and playing two long-lost traditional Polish instruments,
the suka and the Plock fiddle.
Between 1993-96 she
created The Non-European Music Section at the Chopin Music
Academy, as well as gives courses at Musicology Institute
at the Warsaw University which portrays the connections and
differences between various musical systems. In 1994 she established
Zespol Polski and became its artistic director; Zespol Polski
visited Japan, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria,
Germany, France as well as creating many CD's and TV appearances.
Drawing from her rich Asian experiences she composed pieces
commissioned by the famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma which were first
performed in 2000, and were the outcome of her efforts to
break barriers between cultures by connecting her experiences
with Asian music with her own cultural heritage.
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Brian Finnegan
Flute, Tin Whistle
Brian comes from Armagh, Northern Ireland, and currently
plays with the Anglo-Irish band Flook, which won the Best Group
at the BBC Folk Awards in 2006. He founded the band Upstairs
in a Tent, and has released a solo album called When the Party's
Over. Recently, he has been working on his new project The Singing
Tree, a brand new performance in words, music and dance celebrating
the rich musical traditions of the north of Ireland, and the
social and cultural changes currently taking place there.
'He
stands out, in a nation of wonderful flute players, as much
more than a technical virtuoso, his playing having the freewheeling
lightness of touch and inspired musical understanding that
flows into improvisation in real time, at reel speed.' - Norman
Chalmers, The List
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John Joe Kelly
Bodhrán
John
Joe hails from Manchester, and has been described as "unequivocally
the best bodhrán player in the known universe" (BBC
Radio 2 website). Like Brian, he is a member of Flook, and has
also played with Altan and Paul Brady.
"Kelly's
breathtaking solo workout may be a longstanding fixture of Flook's
gigs, but he somehow succeeds in outdoing himself each time"
- The Scotsman
"
John Joe Kelly, renowned as one of the world's best players
of the bodhran, excelled in his solo, providing a driving, rhythmic
escapade that engaged the audience. He managed to subvert preconceptions
of the genre and strike a chord with the crowd." - The
Independent (You Write the Reviews).
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Daisy
Jopling
Violin
Daisy is no stranger to the Royal Albert Hall, having
made her concerto debut there at the age of 14. She is a founding
member of the internationally acclaimed string trio "Triology",
and has toured with them to over 20 countries across the globe.
As well as playing regular solo performances of her own music,
she has also played with ensembles and collaborations in genres
ranging from classical chamber music to West African music and
hip-hop reggae. This 'supremely gifted musician' (Time Out)
has also played on the scores for the films 'El Dorado' and
'Spanglish'.
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Boris
Rubekin
Keyboards
Boris is a native son of Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
He has been playing keyboards in Aquarium (Grebenshikov?s legendary
band) since 1998. He started his musical career playing hymns
in an American Baptist church - simultaneously working as a
sound engineer in his own small recording studio. As a young
child he lived in the building next door to the now famous underground
studio where Aquarium recorded its first albums. From the day
he was invited to join Aquarium he has worked tirelessly to
assist Grebenshikov in making music which speaks directly to
peoples' hearts.
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Becky Taylor
Uilleann Pipes
Becky is one of the few female exponents of the Uilleann or
Irish Pipes in England today. She is renowned for her ability
to give a distinctive interpretation to traditional tunes on
a variety of instruments; Uilleann pipes, fiddle, Northumbrian
pipes, whistle and duet concertina, and her skill in composing
and arranging tunes that continue that tradition are a major
feature of her music. Her eponymously-titled debut album was
released in December 2002 to critical acclaim throughout the
folk scene, and this year saw the release of her latest CD,
Ireland Bridge. As well as being a staple of the traditional
music scene in the UK, Becky has also collaborated on occasion
with musicians from genres as diverse as blues, jazz, and Indian
music. |
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Dundubhi
Dikel
Violin
Dundubhi studied the violin at the Conservatory of Bregenz,
and the University of Music Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
A founding member of the female vocal and instrumental ensemble
Mountain Silence, she has toured Europe, America and the Far
East. As well as the violin, she also plays the chinese erhu.
Dundubhi currently lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
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Sasha
Titov
Bass guitar
This concert sees BG reunite with his old Aquarium bass player
Sasha Titov from St. Petersburg, Russia. Like Grebenshikov,
Sasha was a key player in the Russian cultural underground in
the 80s. As well as Aquarium, he was also a member of'Kino';
these two bands won enormous popular following despite being
blacklisted in communist Russia. Sasha has been living in London
since 1996, and has been involved in numerous international
musical projects over the years.
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Shamita
Achenbach-König
Cello
Shamita
lives in Vienna, Austria. She studied cello at the Conservatory
of Bregenz, the University of Music Mozarteum in Salzburg and
the Vienna Conservatory. She has performed with the Radio Symphony
Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Bach
Soloists. A member of the female vocal and instrumental ensemble
Mountain Silence she has toured Europe, America and the Far
East. In 2005 Shamita set a Guinness World Record at the Impossibility
Challenger Games in Munich, playing the cello non-stop for 24
hours. |
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Erin Nolan
Viola
Erin
is currently living and working in England as a freelance musician.
She plays primarily with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the
English Chamber Orchestra, with whom she toured across Europe
and Korea this past autumn. After traveling to Bosnia for the
first time in 1998, Erin developed a strong interest in improvisation
and in learning about diverse musical cultures. This interest
has led to further travels and recordings in Bosnia, Croatia,
Lebanon and Panama. In September of 2004 she participated in
a ten-day workshop with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project which
culminated in four performances in Carnegie Hall. |
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Alok Verma
Tabla
"If
I had to put a date to my musical journey- it probably began
in the womb." Alok tells us, explaining that his mother
and father were both musicians. "As a 2 year old, I would
follow my father into tabla class and during these wanderings
discovered my natural inclination to the instrument." Alok
began playing tabla at the age of seven, and for the next 12
years trained for a minimum of 7 hours daily. In 1998 Alok won
the Classical Tabla Solo competition at national level in India,
and then began to work with Bollywood artists and directors.
In 2001 Alok moved to England and has worked on percussion with
a number of bands Elaire, Fusing Naked, Rebel Uprising, UK Transculture
and Strings. As well as working as Music Tutor for Ealing Council,
Alok has also stood as one of the Directors of International
Music Week. Alok has worked on projects as diverse as playing
the BBC Summer Festival 2004, playing at the Winterthur International
Film Festival 2004 in Switzerland to portraying Mahatma Gandhi's
life through music at "SOAS".
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Arpan Patel
Harmonium
Arpan
was born and bred in India and throughout his upbringing was
surrounded by lots of great musicians. He practiced music for
hours daily from an early age, and continued his music studies
at college level, obtaining a master's degree in Performing
Arts from M.S. University Baroda.
He has been in the UK for nearly
4 years now and has been delivering his excellent talent of
singing to the audience performing at great venues such as Ipswich
Mela and Bedford Dance Festival. He also won the Sa Re Ga Ma
singing competition which is well renowned in Zee TV. Arpan
is looking forward to collaborating with new musicians and creating
a new dimension in the music industry.
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Mandu Trummer
Harp
Mandu
(pictured here with BG) started to play the harp in Wels, Austria
and later studied under Brigit Trawöger at the Anton Bruckner
Private University of Music in Linz. An accomplished musician
he plays accordion, guitar, piano, violin and the Chinese erhu.
He developed his erhu technique with video lessons from Professors
at Shanghai University, adopting the instrument for the expression
of the infinite depths of divine music. He performs solo concerts
and belongs to the international ensemble Gandharva Loka, which
performed at the Sri Chinmoy tribute concert in April 2008 -
Songs Of The Soul - at New York University.
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John
Devine
Bodhrán
John
discovered the Bodhrán at an early age and became an
all Ireland champion as a teenager. His drumming skills were
employed by several Ceili bands and he also played the Tin Whistle
and the Concert Flute at Fleadhs and festivals all over Ireland
and the UK. As a keyboard player he wrote and recorded every
kind of music from Rock to Stage Shows and toured Europe. A
visit to Ireland rekindled his love of Irish Music in which
he now specialises. He currently teaches flute, pipes, bodhrán
and tin whistle. |
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Pete
Cooper
Mandolin
After
completing his English Literature studies at Oxford Pete Cooper
moved to South London to play music and today teaches, plays,
composes and writes about fiddle music. To many he is best known
as a tutor and has been the inspiration for many of the new
generation on the British Folk Scene. Amidst a host of other
activities Pete coaches the Stockport-based Fosbrooks youth
group, and in 2004 performed with them in China, representing
Britain at the 6th International Folk Arts Festival in Huangshan
City. |
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