Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/Sep/2024
Genre - Percussion
Shirish Malhotra, woodwind and Rahul Vanamali, percussion
In a programme of J. S. Bach: Arioso; Nathan Daughtry: Allez; Carl Nielsen: The Fog is Lifting; Shota Kageyama: Soaring Illusions; Andy Scott: Nemesis; Antônio Carlos Jobim: Olha Maria (Amparo); John Cage: In a Landscape; Gabriel Grovlez: Petites Litanies de Jésus; Claude Debussy: Rêverie; Erik Satie: Gymnopedie No. 3, Gnossienne No. 3 and Nico Schoeters: Cosmopolydian
“Imaginary Landscape” introduces audiences to a unique musical experience that is a confluence of two metallic resonances – percussion and wind.
Shirish Malhotra excelled at both the violin and the flute, at school and college, receiving Trinity exhibition awards for both instruments. He joined the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) in its founding season in 2006 as a flautist and violinist. He received full scholarships to summer schools Allegro Vivo in Austria (2005) and CISMA in China (2006). Besides playing with the SOI and other orchestras, ensembles and bands he has recorded commercially as a flautist, violinist, saxophonist, clarinetist and guitarist. In 2012, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra chose Shirish to be one of 12 flute finalists from all over the world. As the Olga and Jules Craen Foundation’s Young Musician of the Year 2015, Shirish was sent to London and received masterclasses from Paul-Edmund Davies of the London Symphony Orchestra among others. He went on to complete a Master of Music degree in woodwind performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London. Other plaudits include performances as Principal Flute with – the Indian National Youth Orchestra and with The Scokendia Project and assistant principal of the Symphony Orchestra for which he has also performed on saxophone, violin and bansuri. Shirish is a regular feature at The Con Brio Festival and has founded his own string quartet and a saxophone quartet whose sole purpose is to promote music in public spaces in Mumbai.
Rahul Vanamali is a percussionist, arranger, performer, educator from Chennai, India. Having been active as a performer for over 15 years, Rahul graduated from KM Music Conservatory with a diploma in Percussion Performance in 2019, before moving to the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montréal, Canada, where he received a degree in Classical Percussion Performance in 2022. He specializes in mallet percussion and drum set, and has performed and recorded as a percussionist in a wide variety of musical contexts, from classical percussion in orchestras and contemporary ensembles in Canada, to drumming in progressive rock and jazz bands in Chennai, to playing as a mallet percussionist in the Bollywood industry, to performing as a marimba soloist around Chennai. Rahul is currently based in Chennai, and is active as a performer, session musician, and educator. He is the percussion faculty at the Sunshine Orchestra, a project of the AR Rahman Foundation, which aims to provide musical education to children from underprivileged backgrounds and prepare them for careers in music performance and recording.
