Dr Anita Datta, organ
Part of the Exeter College Organ Recital Series, with huge thanks to ZerOclassikal
Anita Datta is an organist, conductor, and composer of Indian origin from East Yorkshire. Drawing on the improvisation-based traditions of both Hindustani Classical and Western Church Music traditions, she presents a concert exploring the entanglements between sounds, peoples, and cultures of musicianship through the versatility of the organ, in Exeter College Chapel.
RETUNE is proud to present the World Premiere performance of Anita Datta’s symphonic organ work, Ādi, a multi-movement offering that extrapolates from the Indian Classical multi-raga structure of ‘Ragmala’ and from the French romantic form of the grand Organ Symphony. This commission builds on Dr Datta’s dual musical and cultural heritage to offer an exploration of a range of traditional ragas, engaged with through the pluralistic sound-universe of the organ, and transformed creatively through Indian and Western compositional techniques. The result is a unique palette that honours both the time-worn classical inheritances of each canon, even as it challenges the limits of both. Inspired by Komal Ni/‘flat-7’ ragas including Malkauns, Ahir Bhairav, Gujari Todi, and Jog, Ādi playfully reflects on the nature of originality in music-making, improvisation, and of artists as creators in a transient moment in time.
Ādi is commissioned as part of the EXTRAPOLATE project by ZerOclassikal, the UK’s leading platform for championing radical and contemporary approaches to South Asian classical music.