“Music is our way of building bridges,” says former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, the founder of the South Asian Symphony Foundation (SASF) and its orchestra, “established with the foundational goal of using music as a universal language to overcome global division, conflict, and rising nationalism.”
The organisation, which launched its orchestra in 2019, uniting musicians from various South Asian nations and the diaspora to foster cooperation, connectivity, and mutual understanding through cultural and citizen diplomacy, will be organising two events in the city this weekend.
On Friday, November 28, SASF will present a lecture, ‘Strings Across The Ocean’ by Katherine Schofield, a professor of South Asian music and history and the head of the Department of Music at King’s College London.
According to the event announcement, this talk follows that long, intertwined history through the journeys of stringed instruments: objects that silently carried culture across empires, oceans, and eras, reflecting on cultural entanglement, the circulation of musical ideas, and the power of sound to bridge distance.
“From the short-necked lute of ancient Gandhara that travelled west to become the medieval European lute, to the Italian violin that arrived on colonial ships in the 16th century before being transformed into a beloved Carnatic instrument, the movement of strings reveals centuries of exchange. Today’s global sitar and electric guitar continue that story of evolution and mutual influence,” it states.
The talk will be followed by a recital by the South Asian Symphony Orchestra (SASO) on November 29, featuring around 120 musicians from across South Asia, the South Asian diaspora in the United States and Europe, as well as choirs from Bengaluru and Chennai.
Nirupama says that she is especially moved by “who sits in the orchestra. You have musicians from different parts of South Asia, different languages, training, even life stories — but once they start playing, those differences don’t disappear, they become strengths. It’s a very real picture of coexistence.”
Led by SASO’s resident conductor Alvin Arumugam, the orchestra will perform an eclectic variety of music, including arrangements of a Carnatic Nottuswara, timeless melodies from Raj Kapoor’s films, choral and vocal music, with German, French, Italian and English arias, with the centrepiece of the concert being the powerful Symphony No. 9, by Ludwig van Beethoven, which “feels like it was written for what we’re trying to do,” says Nirupama, pointing out that it is about human solidarity and shared joy. “That’s exactly the spirit of SASF. When we perform it in Bengaluru, it isn’t just a musical choice; it’s a statement about the world we want to imagine.”
In her opinion, both the talk and the concert are tied to the foundation’s larger purpose: the lecture focusing on how cultures have always influenced each other through music, while the concerts depict that idea in real life, “with musicians from different countries sitting side by side and creating something together. That’s really the heart of why the Foundation exists.”
‘Strings Across The Ocean’ will be held at the Bangalore International Centre, Domlur, on November 28, starting at 6.30 pm, while the South Asian Symphony Orchestra (SASO) will perform at the Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, Konanakunte, on November 29 from 7 pm.