The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago presents Paolo Angeli’s performance with the Surabhi Ensemble at the World Music Festival in Chicago.
The World Music Festival Chicago brings global rhythms of internationally recognised artists to the city, with a festival that spans several locations, and features over 30 artists and groups from 22 countries and regions around the world. Now in its 22nd year of live concerts, this year the festival celebrates 10 years of Ragamala, the largest all-night performance of traditional Indian music in the United States.
Paolo Angeli, born in 1970, started playing the guitar at the age of 9. He grew up in Palau, in a very stimulating musical environment. In 2013, Paolo produced two albums that defined his style, bringing together traditional Sardinian music, free jazz, flamenco, Arabic sounds and post-folk music: Sale Quanto Basta (Rer), followed by S’Û (2015 ReR). Angeli holds a degree in Ethnomusicology from DAMS in Bologna. Since 1997, he has collaborated with ISRE on the Archivio Mario Cervo (the main collection of recordings of traditional Sardinian music). In May 2022, Paolo Angeli released his new concept album RADE, produced for ReR Megacorp in collaboration with AnMa productions, and distributed by Goodfellas.
The RADE teaser is available at the following link.
Today, the Surabhi Ensemble is made up of six members: Saraswathi Ranganathan (veena), Dhananjay Kunte (tabla), Ronnie Malley (oud), Bob Garrett (percussion), Carlo Basile (guitar) and Greg Nergaard (bass). The ensemble also includes Indian and Spanish dancers, Kinnari Vora and Leticia Aravena. Present collaborators on the “Scenes From the Pandemic,” project include Juan Díes (guitar, vocals) and Lorena Iniguez (vihuela, Mexican dance) from Sones de Mexico and Anita Darwish (flute, Arabic dance).
Each of us has witnessed a profound global change over the past two years. Surabhi Ensemble’s latest work, “Scenes From the Pandemic” is about the ways in which artists have interpreted these events and how they have influenced their artistic output. The ensemble continued to deliver virtual performances and workshops, live tours and new material focusing on life during the pandemic, social justice and global conflicts. Through narrative vignettes, the group showcases this new original work with music, dance, poetry and digital media, presenting the ensemble members’ as well as other artists’ points of view.
For more information, please go to: iicchicago.esteri.it.
