On Wednesday 2nd August, as part of the Summer Music Festival at The National Musicians' Church, The Music in Community Fund and the Baluji Music Foundation collaborate to bring you Ragaria. Popular opera arias with Indian instruments (Figario with an Indian flourish!) and music from the world’s first Urdu opera Sohini and Mahival composed by Baluji Shrivastav OBE.

Programme:

Patricia Rozario OBE (soprano)

*Janaat’s Aria - Sohini and Mahival (Baluji Shrivastav OBE and Dario Marinelli)

*Matins for the virgin of Guadalupe (Stephen McNeff).

*Melina (John Tavener)

Oscar Castellino (baritone)

*Mahival’s Aria from Sohini and Mahival (Baluji Shrivastav OBE and Dario Marine)

*Figaro’s Aria from The Barber of Seville (Rossini)

*Selections from The Little Big Man (Betram Wee)

Anusha Merrin Bobby (soprano)

*Sohini’s Aria from Sohini and Mahival (Baluji Shrivastav OBE and Dario Marinelli)

*Cricket ghost aria from the Adventures of Pinocchio (Jonathan Dove)

*A Hand of Bridge (excerpt, Samuel Barber)

*No word from Tom from The Rake's Progress (Igor Stravinsky)

The Baluji Music Foundation is a blind-led, inclusive arts organisation encouraging participation in music by people from different cultural perspectives. It was established in 2008 by Baluji Shrivastav OBE, Indian multi-instrumentalist and composer and his wife, musician and writer Linda Shanson.

The Inner Vision Orchestra was founded in 2012 to give professional opportunities and employment to blind and partially sighted musicians and raise awareness of the issues facing them in establishing their careers. Members of the Inner Vision Orchestra performed in front of a global audience of millions at the London 2012 closing ceremony of the Paralympics. In 2016 Baluji was awarded the OBE for his services to music and as founder of the Inner Vision Orchestra.

Baluji Shrivastav OBE is one of the world’s leading composers and sitar players. Described as ‘sitarist to the stars’ (Evening Standard), he has performed and recorded with artists such as Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Massive Attack, Madness, Shakira, Malu, Boy George & Doves. Baluji is signed to Naxos World ARC with over fifteen releases of classical and world music fusion. His compositions include works for orchestra, theatre, dance, film, television and radio. Selected credits include Disney’s Million Dollar Arm, 20th Century Fox’s New Girl, NBC’s Outsourced and the world’s only Urdu opera Sohini and Mahival, which he composed with Golden Globe and Oscar Winner Dario Marianelli.

Baluji Music Foundation is a registered charity established principally to promote the participation of disabled people in music featuring The Inner Vision Orchestra of professional blind musicians. Accolades include an OBE for services to music, the GG2 Award for Overcoming Adversity, Non-Resident Indian of the Year for Art and Culture and the prestigious Hind Rattan Award-Jewel of India.

For further information about Baluji Shrivastav OBE please visit www.baluji.com

For further information about Baluji Music Foundation please visit www.balujimusicfoundation.org

Oscar Castellino

Hailed as a ‘rising star in the opera world’ (BBC News), Oscar Castellino is an international operatic baritone and composer of the anthem for the planet Mars, commissioned by the Mars Society USA. He has performed with Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera. Besides singing operatic roles Oscar is now working towards creating new opera in Indian languages.

Patricia Rozario

Patricia Rozario, OBE is a Bombay-born British soprano. Born and educated in Bombay, India, she went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

She has performed at the English National Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Garsington Opera in England, and has performed on stage across Europe in Aix-en-Provence, Brussels, Frankfurt, Ghent, Innsbruck, Lyon and Stuttgart.

One of her most notable appearances was across Europe in The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Sir Georg Solti. She has also given concerts in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and as part of The Proms in England, and abroad in Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Halle, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Cologne, Leipzig, Madrid, New York City, Paris, Riga, Rouen, Strasbourg, Vienna, Winterthur and Zürich. She performed in a production of Elvis Costello’s Meltdown.

Rozario has made numerous recordings of the works of composer John Tavener. She was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2001. Rozario is currently a professor at the Royal College of Music, where she is a member of the Vocal Faculty.

Mark Troop

Pianist, broadcaster and writer, Mark is founder of The Chamber Music Company, devoted to all types of music. His broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 have included The Twilight of the Iguana, which is a three-part Latin American series and several live recitals. He has made an in-depth study of the Songs of the 20th Century Argentinian tango master – Astor Piazzolla and performs South American repertory regularly.

Mark also runs five London-based events: The Latin American Roadshow, a multi-arts Festival dedicated to the culture of Latin America; The CMC Summer Solstice, which scales up classical and jazz music under one roof; The CMC Rare Music Series, which discovers neglected Classical repertory; The Second Glance Festival of New Music which peddles selected new music to a wider audience and I’m a stranger Here Myself. He also runs Yin Yang Collective, London’s first Chinese-Western fusion group. He has also set up British Council tours in India, Spain and Latin America.