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Send us your review:
Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Sirishkumar
Location: London
Instruments: tabla
Music: Indian /
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 ÌýÌýListen (4'43) to 'Melo Melo' arranged and performed by Sirishkumar from the album, Kirtan Mala, available from www.sirishkumar.com,
ÌýÌýListen (3'07) to Sirishkumar talk about his music
 ÌýÌýWatch (2'03) a video of 'Melo Melo', performed live at the Swaminarayan Temple, Forest Gate, East London with Sirish on tablas, Dhanji Vekaria and Ramji Vekaria on vocals; Ashwinkumar on harmonium, Mike Pickering on drums, Jason Carter on Spanish guitar, Dave Noble on sitar and bass, David Wright on saxophone, Steve Edis on keyboards, and Arwin Vekaria on manjira with the chorus courtesy of local Hindu boys and sound engineered by Dineshkumar.
'I was so touched by the tabla that even as a young boy, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life playing music driven by its energising beats.'
Where I play:
I play all over the world collaborating with musicians across lots of different styles. Through my Asian background, I occasionally produce and perform at events like the Swaminarayan Temple's Jubilee Celebrations in Oldham or the opening of its sister temple in East London. My brother Aswin and some of my friends perform with me including the son of one of the singers, Arwin to whom I teach the tabla.
These celebrations are all day events where everybody dresses up in their finest clothes. We fast through out the day and then eat special food in the evening. Hundreds of people attend from all over the country. It's very exciting. I've also produced a cd of these celebrations which I mixed in my studio at home. We still play music at home so if I needed a little sitar for a piece, then I'd get my sister to perform it. Sometimes, we even persuade my mother to sing.
In recent years I've been collaborating with musicians from the Western tradition and that works really well, even in the temple. This year we had Spanish guitar, saxophone, clarinet and keyboards in a very jazzy style and of course drums and base guitar at the Swaminarayan concert. I like coming together with musicians from different backgrounds to see what we can come up with sound-wise.
As well as live performances, I compose and perform music for the theatre and film, including the National Theatre, The Globe Theatre, Ennio Morricone (City of Joy) and the British Council. For the latter, as part of Inklein, we were commissioned to perform at an international summit for the Indian, Brazilian and Chinese governments.
 Another big interest of mine is in sharing my musical skills through workshops - I've recently been involved with 'Impro', a major music project for disabled kids, run by Eddie Parker. We presented a couple of shows at the Ocean venue in London. It was amazing to see how readily these kids responded and what an inspiration it was to see how much music can heal. I've also given workshops to primary school groups and to children with special needs at Bore Place, a beautiful organic farm and learning resource centre in Kent.
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