A premiere of two compositions with ZerOclassikal

Tala++

The world premiere of Tala++, an original work for piano and two tablas composed by pianist Steve Tromans as part of zerOclassikal’s Extrapolate commissions.

Tala++ takes the interrelation of South Asian classical music and improvisation to a new level of creative entanglement - and the result is something entirely new for both fields of musical expression. The work is in three movements and features Tromans on piano alongside the tabla talents of Mitel Purohit and Denis Kucherov.

Perseverance

This three-part development of a new raag by Jonathan Mayer, keeps to the theme of tilak karod, relooking at the pakards, and amalgamating various taals to create contrapuntal material.

Perseverance explores the vulnerability of hope – in a world embroiled in harsh severity, where beautifying is its only hope to survive it. Jonathan Mayer picks this important theme as a way of claiming South Asian classical music is very much a contemporary musical genre, which can be used to create new material about important issues and subjects. “Music should allow you to think about the world around you, not just sound pretty.”