A festival blending cultures will be held at the Indian Music Experience in Bengaluru

A joint cross-cultural music festival called RhythmXChange will be organised by the Indian Music Experience Museum (IME) and Manchester Museum. From November 25 to 27, IME will host the festival’s opening day. From March 17 to 23, 2023, the second phase will be held in the Manchester Museum in the UK.

This joint endeavour aims to investigate rhythm as a common language between the East and the West. Four young musicians from India and the UK participated in a mentorship programme as part of the one-year initiative. Mentors from India and the UK assisted the young musicians as they collaborated to create a rhythm-based art project they called JAVA – The Cadence Collective (Joash Gill, Aditi B Prahlad, Vinthya Perinpanathan, Ashwin Mandoth). On November 26, JAVA will have a public performance for the first time.

The Indian Music Experience Museum and the Manchester Museum have partnered internationally to create RhythmXChange, supported by the British Council‘s India/UK Together Season of Culture and Our Shared Cultural Heritage program.

A rap battle, panel discussions, museum tours with percussion themes, performances by young artists from around the world, and a screening of Dollu—which won the National Award for the Best Kannada Film—are all part of the festival’s opening weekend at IME.

Preema John, the museum director of IME, stated that the RhythmXChange will showcase young artists from India and UK and build their global networks. The young musicians have had the chance to learn about musical connections between India and the UK thanks to the bilateral project and on-site festival. They now travel to the partner nation to perform and engage with the local populations. We also anticipate supporting the festival’s UK portion in Manchester in March.

According to Skinder Hundal MBE, Global Director of Arts at the British Council, the collaboration between the IME and Manchester Museum showcases Indian Carnatic music alongside eastern and western percussion traditions to explore rhythm as a shared language to engage young people and artists beyond borders to improve how we understand our cultures.

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