Hindol Deb

Hindol Deb, the Indian sitar player and composer, has explored the possibilities of the crossover of Indian music with other genres such as contemporary western classical, jazz, flamenco, Nordic folklore and Balkan music. Hindol was invited by the Academy of Carnegie Hall, the French Ministry of Culture and ETHNO Sweden as Artist in Residence to work with musicians there. He also had the honor and privilege of playing for Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama. Hindol currently lives in Cologne and is working on compositions for a crossover jazz project. He has conducted workshops at the Elbphilharmonie, the University of Music and Dance in Cologne, the Pop Akademie Mannheim.

Benedetta Reuter

Benedetta Reuter completed her dance studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen in 1995 and has ever since worked internationally as a freelance dancer, performer and choreographer. Her body of work explores relationships and interactions between dance and the other arts. Often she worked with musicians from the fields of free improvisation, new music and jazz and explores the relationship between sound and body. As a result of intensive practice in improvisation there emerged several interdisciplinary dance and performance projects, such as “The Fold Dance Project” or “Electric Tire-Land” in collaboration with ASEDEVA and the Goethe Institute in Daressalam, Tanzania.

Photo Benedetta Reuter by Hannah Bergus

www.benedettareuter.com

Meera Varghese

Meera Varghese is a dancer, choreographer and teacher of the South Indian classical dance form Bharatanatyam. Born and raised in Canada, Meera Varghese has performed as a Bharatanatyam soloist in countless dance productions and festivals in India, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Meera Varghese is also a trained opera singer and completed her Masters in Music and Opera Performance at the HMT in Cologne. She has sung in numerous opera productions at theatres in Aachen and Münster, at Bayer Kultur and the Kammeroper Köln. Meera has also played various roles as an actor, dancer and singer in productions of children’s theatre.

 

Photo Meera Varghese by Stefano Triulzi

Mariana Sadovska

Mariana Sadovska by MEYER ORIGINALS

Mariana Sadovska is an internationally renowned singer, multi-instrumentalist, artist and composer. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, where she was trained as a classical pianist, the Cologne-based artist has continued her artistic journey in various directions. By organizing ethno-musical expeditions in rural Ukraine and Poland, she has collected a large body of traditional songs, stories and rituals that she transforms into modern sounds for today`s generations.

Mariana Sadovska systematically explores and experiments with new sounds. In addition to her outstanding solo performances, international collaborations have led to a variety of successful and fascinating artistic projects, such as her recently composed piece “Chernobyl. A Harvest” commissioned by and performed together with the Kronos Quartet or her “Borderland” project with German jazz musicians. She was awarded the German World Music RUTH in 2013.

www.marianasadovska.com

Majid Bekkas

Majid Bekkas studied at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Rabat and learnt Gnaoua music through the teachings of the master Ba Houmane. Gnaoua came originally from West Africa, the cradle of the Blues, and were deported along with the slaves to Morocco. Bekkas started in the 80s to combine Jazz & Blues with different Moroccan music styles. Since then, he performed with his own band as well as with famous artists such as Joachim Kühn, Archie Shepp, Bassekou Kouyate, Klaus Doldinger and Louis Sclavis around the world.

Photo Majid Bekkas by Omar-Mhammedi

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Sandhya Sanjana

Sandhya Sanjana was born in Bombay, India where she studied Hindustani vocal music from several gurus. She discovered jazz and blues and her compositions combine these various elements. She sings in several Indian languages. Currently she lives in Amsterdam where she has three bands featuring varied genres of music. Her greatest joy is in combining diverse streams into a cohesive musical language. 

Photo Sandhya Sanjana by SONY DSC