A North West arts collective are set to perform an exciting new intercultural showcase, with music created during the pandemic by NHS staff and older people, as a part of South Asian Heritage Month.
The So Many Beauties Collective are made up of some of the region’s finest musicians, who in collaboration with Milap, Contact Theatre, LIME Arts, SoundUp Arts CIC, Greater Manchester BME Network and Manchester Camerata, have come together during the pandemic to share music, celebrate each other’s heritage and to develop new inter-cultural ideas.
The performance will feature Milap’s artist in residence Kousic Sen. Born into a musical family, Kousic is the proud representative of the Banaras Gharana and is one of the foremost tabla players of his generation. Having accompanied many notable musicians and dancers throughout India, Kousic’s intense and energetic performances add a new dimension to traditional concerts.
The showcase will premiere on 5th August at 6pm on a Zoom webinar and live-stream. The event is free to attend, and tickets can be reserved for the performance here.
The ethos of the collective is to work co-creatively with people in health and social care settings, providing opportunities for patients and staff to be actively involved in the creative process of making music. They specialise in ‘weaving a rich tapestry of sounds, drawing on diverse cultural influences’.
In 2021, So Many Beauties led a series of workshops hosted by LIME Arts and SoundUp Arts with additional funding from Arts Council England. The music that will be showcased in this performance was created during these workshops, attended by a wonderfully creative cohort of frontline NHS staff and older people in the wider community.
The collective features Milap’s artist in residence Kousic Sen playing tabla alongside Mina Salama (Egyptian multi-instrumentalist), Gulcin Bulut (Turkish frame drum player and voice), Amina Hussain (classical flute), Mark McKenzie (Gospel piano and voice) and Holly Marland (Kora [West African harp] and voice).
There are a limited number of online tickets available to join the live performance streaming from Manchester’s Contact Theatre. The event will also be broadcast on the So Many Beauties Facebook event page, and will be uploaded after the event to YouTube.
The event forms part of the South Asian Heritage Month programme, running from 18th July – 17th August. The full event schedule can be found here.