Indian Music Experience in Bengaluru to host RhythmXChange, a cross-cultural festival

Indian musicians Joash Gill, Aditi B Prahlad, Vinthya Perinpanathan, and Ashwin Mandothpart were part of the RhythmXChange program
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Indian Music Experience Museum (IME) in partnership with Manchester Museum will be organising a collaborative cross-cultural music festival titled RhythmXChange. The first phase of the festival will be held at IME from November 25 to 27. The second phase will be at the Manchester Museum in the UK from March 17 to 23, 2023.

This collaborative project seeks to explore rhythm as a shared language between East and West. As part of the year-long program, four young musicians from India and the UK took part in a mentorship programme. Mentors from India and the UK guided the young musicians to jointly develop a rhythm-based art project, which they named JAVA – The Cadence Collective (Joash Gill, Aditi B Prahlad, Vinthya Perinpanathan, Ashwin Mandoth). JAVA will perform in front of the public for the first time on November 26.

RhythmXChange is an international partnership between the Manchester Museum and the Indian Music Experience Museum funded by the British Council’s India/UK Together Season of Culture and Our Shared Cultural Heritage programme.

The first phase of the festival at IME will include percussion-themed museum walkthroughs, performances by young artists from around the world, a rap battle, panel discussions and a screening of Dollu, which won the National Award for the Best Kannada Film.

“Through RhythmXChange we aim to promote young musicians from India and UK and grow their global networks,” said the museum director of IME, Preema John. “Being a bilateral project and on-site festival, the young musicians have had the opportunity to discover musical connections between India and the UK and now get to travel to the partner country to perform and connect with the host communities. We also look forward to supporting the festival’s UK leg this coming March in Manchester.”

Meanwhile, the Global Director of Arts at the British Council, Skinder Hundal MBE, added, “This collaboration between the IME and Manchester Museum showcases Indian carnatic music alongside eastern and western percussion traditions to explore rhythm as a shared language to engage young people and artists beyond borders to improve how we understand our cultures.”