History
In 1995, a publicist created the name the Attar Project for the first performance I gave in Toronto shortly after moving there. In that performance, I presented a collection of contemporary works for violin that were somehow influenced by India, including the first work I commissioned, La for violin and tabla composed by Alberta composer Robert Rosen, a work premiered and recorded with Toronto tabla player Ravi Naimpally that has gone on to extraordinary success. In addition to La, I also recorded Harry Somers’ monumental Music for Solo Violin (1972) - composed for violinist Yehudi Menuhin and inspired by the composers’ stay on Dal Lake in Kashmir - Violeta Dinescu’s, Satya I and an arrangement of the third poem from the Sikh prayer, Kirtan Sohila, called Arti, whose vocal lines were sung and composed by ghazal singer Kiran Ahluwalia. The title track of the disc, Beauty Enthralled, by Seattle composer, Rick Bidlack, is an extended viola improvisation set against an acoustic backdrop of ‘partitions of tonal space’ that function as shifting, harmonically and microtonally dense drones.
In subsequent years, I continued to perform, commission and create work that crossed genre and discipline boundaries, with particular focuses on dance and South Asian aesthetics. Bharata-natyam dancer/choreographer Gitanjali Kolanad and I created a number of duets and solos for which Gitanjali developed a bharata-natyam-based movement vocabulary that allowed me to simultaneously both dance and play the violin. This synthesis in turn informed the music I created for Gitanjali and other dancers with whom I collaborated as performer, composer, improviser. Some of my works created with Gitanjali figure on my second disc, Sapphire Skies (2003), which features the tabla playing of Ed Hanley.
Current work
Over the past few years, and as a direct result of having formed a strong performance bond with Montreal tabla player Shawn Mativetsky, I have resurrected the moniker the Attar Project as a band name. Shawn’s bimusicality lends itself easily to exploring the avant-garde sound worlds of the tabla and the violin through both improvisational and compositional means. His commitment to the project has brought not only new energy, but also new audiences to the music of the Attar Project. We have worked to adapt and commission new works for violin and tabla. The results can be heard on our recently released disc, The Road Ahead..., which features the works of five young Canadian composers.
Click here for the Attar Project bio (English)
Click here for the Attar Project bio (French)
