Sabato 21 Ottobre ore 18:00 – Chiesetta Centro Asteria

Conferenza-Concerto:Krishna Nagaraja – Composing (at) the Crossroads

Hybridisation of musical genres in contemporary composition

Apre il concerto Jamie Gogan (chitarra) e Valentine Laporte (flauto) (Artisti Residenze Erranti)

Violinist, violist, composer, arranger, formerly also singer and beatboxer, Krishna Nagaraja has always approached music from many different directions. Over the years, his path led him to the baroque violin and viola, performing with renowned groups in his native Italy and abroad. His passion for folk music also steered him towards Irish, Scottish, Breton, and Nordic traditions. In 2014 he obtained a Master’s Degree in Global Music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where in 2022 he completed an artistic PhD project on the hybridisation of Nordic folk music with other elements.

Within this framework he experimented with the interaction between musical genres and styles, mixing folk with baroque and contemporary music in original arrangements and compositions. This activity produced projects such as Biviola, a viola duo performing his arrangements of Nordic folk tunes, and his main brainchild Brú, a kaleidoscopic international group whose leadership has brought him and his music to several European festivals and venues. One of his latest achievements is the CD “Tales from Norway”, published in 2022, featuring two compositions based on Norwegian folk music performed by string quartet Meta4 and himself on the Hardanger fiddle. The recording was nominated at the Finnish Grammy Awards in the category of Classical Album of the Year, and its repertoire is currently being performed in several countries both in Europe and overseas. In 2024 he will being a postdoctoral project entitled “PolyMatters”, studying the occurrence of polyrhythmic and polymetrical structures in different musical genres and using it as the basis for the composition of new works. The project will be funded by the Finnish Arts Promotion Centre and by the Wihuri Foundation.