Boston Musica Viva and soloists of the Silk Road Ensemble perform “Kala Chakra,” a new work composed by Shirish Korde, distinguished professor of humanities in the College’s music department. Korde’s work is based on folk music from diverse cultures including Armenia, China, India, the Czech Republic, Romania, and the U.S. In this composition, texts and musical structures are interwoven to create a new work that not only explores common features among world folk traditions that are the focus of “Kala Chakra,” but also juxtaposes conflicting notions of time, color, melody, and harmony into a new sonic world, reflective of the inter-connected world we live in today.
In a review following the world premiere just a few days earlier in Cambridge, Boston Classical Review said the concert was “so rhythmically infectious that, if the tiny hall had any aisles to speak of, one could imagine the patrons dancing in them. As it was, they had to content themselves with applauding vigorously and bounding to their feet at the close of Kala Chakra, Shirish Korde’s new nine-movement work for three soloists and chamber ensemble.”
Photography by Matthew Atanian