Music | Shankar to perform ‘Land of Gold’ in Macau premiere

Anoushka Shankar

Sitar sensation Anoushka Shankar will perform her latest “Land of Gold” concert at the Macao Cultural Center (CCM) on March 20, accompanied by a group of musicians.

The British-Indian sitar player and composer will be accompanied by percussionist and co-composer Manu Delago, double bassist and keyboardist Tom Farmer, and master of the Indian shehnai, Sanjeev Shankar.

Contrasting flowing, meditative traditional ragas with dense electronics and amplified beats, the humanitarian album is Shankar’s response to the international refugee crisis and a cry against injustice.

The virtuosa is the daughter of the legendary musician Ravi Shankar and picks up where her father left off, granting audiences a peek into India’s musical traditions.

Weeks before her Macau premiere, Shankar shared that the concept of “Land of Gold” originated as her response to the plight of refugees.

“It coincided with the time when I had recently given birth to my second child. I was deeply troubled by the intense contrast between my ability to provide for my baby, and others who desperately wanted to provide the same security for their children but were unable to do so,” Shankar said in an interview.

“It was a disturbing comparison that played on my mind, fuelled by a sense of growing outrage, that the mass displacement of this vulnerable tide of people had been caused by external political decisions and detached acts of war,” she said.

Shankar affirmed that music for a good cause is always worth pursuing – whether the concert achieves direct change or makes a difference in a more subtle manner, such as touching the hearts of listeners.

The combination of instruments in the “Land of Gold” concert is quite different from previous instalments. 

Shankar explained that Manu Delago came on board as a co-writer and collaborator when the concert was first conceptualized. It was then that she realized that the team would be pairing the sitar with a variety of specific percussive sounds.

The sitarist chose the traditional shehnai – an evocative Indian wind instrument – and a string instrument to bring the final compositions together.

“As a quartet, this sound becomes very international and evokes many feelings and emotions in a listener,” she noted.

Questioned on what she expects from the local audience, Shankar replied, “I don’t have any specific expectations from the audience in Macau, just a hope that they enjoy our music.”

The sitarist added that she understands that there are slight cultural differences in the way concert-goers from different regions will respond to the performance.

The sitar has been a part of Shankar’s life since she was young. She was always fond of the sound of it, which she also attributed to the fact that she grew up around her father’s concerts and music lessons in their household.

“It was definitely a choice that I had but as I said, it was something that was always around me from the beginning, so it did influence my choice,” she said.

Shankar works with a variety of genres, including but not limited to Indian classical music, jazz, electronica and flamenco.

“I don’t think there is something as an heiress to someone’s musical legacy. […] So if there is a musical legacy it is one that I share with all of his disciples,” she noted.

Shankar’s “Land of Gold” will be held at CCM’s Grand Auditorium at 8 p.m. on March 20.