For this year’s second edition of Kiezsalon, we’ve invited the Mandolin Sisters, who present their special approach to southern Indian Carnatic music, as well as an avant-garde trio led by Portugeese pianist Joana Gama performing their tribute to French composer Eric Satie.
Sreeusha and Sireesha are young Carnatic mandolin players popularly known as Mandolin Sisters. Thanks to their foresighted parents, these two sisters were encouraged and honed their talents on the mandolin which made them the only sisters in India to play the mandolin in carnatic music. From the age of five they were in the habit of listening and watching their father pluck the strings of the guitar. Observing their enthusiasm for the sounds emanating from the guitar’s body, their father started to allow them to pluck its strings.
As ducks take to water, the sisters took to music. Later, their father wanted them to take up carnatic mandolin. Guided first by him and then by their earliest guru Vidwan Sri Rudraraju Subbaraju, the infant sisters learnt and practiced their art. The sisters have also acquired lessons from various vidwans. Currently, they are under the guidance of Vidwan Sri Sengalipurm S.V.Ramamurthy Iyer, a disciple of the late Carnatic singer Mudikondan Venkatarama Iyer. So far, the sisters have given thousands of concerts throughout India and abroad. They have performed in Singapore, Muscat, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. In their home country, the sisters’ performances have been telecast by major TV stations and have been favorably reviewed by leading newspapers.
Brigid Mae Power is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, like Judie Sill, Micky Newbury or Linda Perhacs before her, paints her songs in dreamily expansive strokes, transporting earthly compositions into universal and exultant realms. Her self-titled debut on Tompkins Square is a majestic suite of reverb-swathed laments for voice, guitar, piano, accordion, and harmonium, recorded at the Portland studio of key musical foil Peter Broderick.
Themes include transformation, change, motherhood, acceptance, strength, courage and trust. In the words of Power, the album is about “trusting if you lose yourself or your way — you can come back”. Live, Brigid can encapsulate the timeless magic of her songs either solo or as a duo with Peter. Thus far she has toured throughout Ireland, UK and the US together with artists including Lee Ranaldo, Richard Dawson, Alasdair Roberts, Peter Broderick and Ryley Walker.
Four years after 100 Cage – Joana Gama, Luís Fernandes and Ricardo Jacinto join as a trio for another celebration: the 150th anniversary of the birth of Erik Satie. The relationship is simple: for his uncompromising and unusual thought, Satie opened the way to John Cage who, in turn, dignified the value of sound as sound. But Cage also reveals, in some of his works, a delicacy reminiscent of the French composer´s music.
Under the title HARMONIES – the title of a set of harmonic studies composed by Satie – the trio´s original music is based on fragments of his compositions. This is an homage with the eyes set on the contemporaneity, and once again we refer to Cage who said: “It’s not a question of Satie’s relevance. He is indispensable”.
Installation AJATUS | Wood/metal sculpture, floating black diary (2016-17) by Victoria Alejandrova (RU/FI): Materialized images as the mind’s product, realized visually to be deconstructed, sensed, or even savored in the depth. The need to follow the cycle from tangible realization to symbolism in the thought’s deeper meaning. You will find AJATUS on your way to the concert hall, located in the dark 120 years old bunkers of the building.
Our salon wines of the evening: “Noir” Rotweincuvée by Weingut Thoerle (2015) / Rheinhessen
Weisser Burgunder by Weingut Knab (2016) / Kaiserstuhl/Baden
Mandolin Sisters (India), Brigid Mae Power (Ireland) and Harmonies by Joana Gama, Luís Fernandes and Ricardo Jacinto (Portugal)
Decks: Sarah Farina | Through My Speakers (DE/Berlin)
Wednesday, 31st May 2017 | Door 20:00 | Start 20:30 CET
Musikbrauerei | Greifswalder Strasse 23a | 10407 Berlin/Prenzlauer Berg
Photo by Roland Owsnitzki.
There is limited capacity to the salon. Tickets only available at the door. Please be on time.
