Award-winning sitar star North East-bound
Award-winning sitar star North East-bound
Sitar virtuoso Jandeep Singh Degun has announced a UK tour which includes two dates in the North East.
He will perform at , on October 4 in a co-presentation with GemArts and at Hartlepool Folk Festival on October 6.
The musician, born in Leeds in 1991, started to learn Indian classical music at primary school and has risen to prominence as musician, composer and music director.
He has done much to broaden the popularity of sitar music in this country, having made TV appearances, released a first album, Anomaly, in 2022 and worked closely with Opera North with whom he was artist-in-residence that same year.
He has also (witness that folk festival appearance) demonstrated the instrument’s versatility.
Recently Jandeep Singh Degun was named instrumentalist of the year at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards (a first for the sitar, with 16 pianists and eight violinists having won since the inaugural year, 1990).
“It feels like British Asian musicians are being taken more seriously in the room,” he says.
“At last our music is being programmed alongside western classical repertoire rather than hived off as something niche or novel.”
Ahead of the 14-date tour, he offers some words of introduction to those who might be new to Indian classical music.
“Indian classical musicians don't write sets, so preparing for this tour is a question of mapping out what I want to say musically and then just practice, practice, practice.
“It’ll all just happen on the day. You can't fix everything – and you shouldn't, because it won't be a good concert if it’s not spontaneous.
“You practice as much as you can on as many different themes as possible, but on the day all you can do is make sure that your hands are moving. You have to be completely open to whatever happens.”
Therein, he concludes, lies the beauty and transcendent quality of the music.
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