Award-winning Sitar player – Jasdeep Singh Degun – makes Festival debut
Sitar player, composer and innovator, Jasdeep Singh Degun has been described as “one of the most imaginative musicians in the land” by The Independent and “one of our greatest musicians in the country” by the legendary Nitin Sawhney (himself a Lichfield Festival headline artist in 2023).
He’s also just made history by becoming the first classical Indian musician to receive the highly prestigious RPS Instrumental Award 2024, the panel particularly praising him for “showing us all the beauty and boundless possibilities of the sitar”.
You’ll have the chance to find out exactly why when Jasdeep makes his Lichfield Festival debut on 9 July in a late evening concert in Lichfield Cathedral that will create the perfect atmosphere for his duo with tabla and jori player Surdarshan Singh. Come and be immersed in his extraordinary artistry and spontaneous improvisation through the ancient tradition of the raag.
Degun has been blazing a trail and breaking down cultural boundaries with compositions like his sitar concerto Arya for the Orchestra of Opera North, and debut album Anomaly recorded in 2021 with Nitin Sawhney, and his reworking of Monteverdi’s opera Orpheus for Opera North, which brought together Indian classical and European influences in a way that thrilled audiences and critics alike. It’s projects like these that earned him the Songlines 2023 Newcomer Award.
His latest single is the hauntingly beautiful Lament, a stripped back instrumental arrangement from Orpheus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVkOfsHQ4OQ
Growing up in Leeds and studying at Leeds College of Music, he was influenced by both Western and Indian classical music traditions simultaneously, first at school through singing and then learning the sitar from an inspirational teacher and mentor. “In our tradition, you’re always a student”, he explains. “My teacher, Ustad Dharambir Singh MBE, shows me how big the music is, and how much we still have to explore.”
Whether in the studio, on the concert platform or in venues from Westminster Abbey to the Amphitheatre in Doha, Jasdeep is forging powerful new musical forms. “It’s really not a matter of different worlds meeting,” he reflects, “it’s just me: as much as I’m immersed in Indian classical music, I’m a product of this country; I’m a British composer.”
Listen to his interview with Sean Rafferty on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y2qw (available for 30 days after broadcast)