Internationally Renowned Virtuoso Sarod Player & Innovative East-West Composer Lisa Sangita Moskow and Spiritually Attuned Violinist Lucian Balmer Perform on the Studio 55 Marin Stage

In a rare Marin County appearance, Lisa Sangita Moskow, virtuoso sarod player and East-West composer, will present an evening of her own compositions and collaborations with violinist Lucian Balmer. Both musicians have one foot in the classical traditions of the East and West with the other in the entrancing and inspiring milieu of spiritual world music. Sangita Moskow performs on electric sarod (a multi-stringed lute from North India), and studied extensively with the recently passed Ali Akbar Khan.

 Sangita has performed music since the age of 23 and is trained in both Eastern and Western compositional work. She has gained international recognition for her innovative work with the sarod and creates original compositions and unusual ensembles for this instrument. Sangita has developed a new genre of sarod composition using non-traditional tunings and techniques. These pieces incorporate vocalizations and lyrics. They draw heavily from the scales, rhythms, and structures of North Indian classical music, but also from the musics of Indonesia, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe.

 Sangita's CD "Yearning" was noted by Yoga Journal as one of the Top 20 New Age Albums of the 1990-2000 Decade. "Yearning" was done in collaboration with ambient musician Robert Rich who also collaborated with her on one other album Propagation. She has toured extensively in the United States, Mexico, and Europe.

 Lucian Balmer is a violinist in the Mill Valley Philharmonic. He is well-acquainted with Indian music due to playing violin and singing many years in an Indian ashram that specialized in music as a spiritual practice. He is widely praised for the deep meditational quality of his music. Lucian has performed music for over 20 years and uses his violin and exquisite voice to demonstrate the spiritual power of music for healing and reviving the soul.

 This show will be an opportunity to experience the "next generation" of classically trained Indian/Western master musicians. Sangita is part of a movement of East-West musicians who blend the best of both worlds. She enjoys the fact that Indian music encompasses both fixed composition and improvisation within the confines of the rules of raga. There is a great deal of freedom within the form and, as in Sangita's classical music, jazz, you can improvise indefinitely one you know the rules. It allows enormous potential for self-expression. Sangita plays an electric sarod, a fusion of the traditional sarod and modern design.

Media Quotes:

"Using her years of classical training on the sarod as a foundation, Lisa Moskow takes the North Indian 25-string lute into original
byways of her musical imagination, constantly inventing new contexts for the unique sliding, bending,droning tones that sing
from her instrument. Brilliant recent recordings include collaborations with sound sculptor Robert Rich (Yearning) and flutist/clarinetist
Hermann Buhler and percussionist Geoffrey Gordon (Sojourn)."--Derk Richardson SF Bay Guardian

What people have said the album "Yearning": "...the fruit of two virtuosos...an epic meditation...the soul of the music takes flight."  Korova Multimedia Online Review 

"A collaboration that works...at times relaxed, at times intense and always beautiful."  Audion  

"...one hell of an audiophile trance."  Absolute Sound