western classical

This is the second part of our conversation with author, pianist, and law professor Mira T. Sundara Rajan. In this segment, she describes her experience of poetry and how it relates to her experience of playing composed music. Mira also reads poetry by Percy Blythe Shelley and provides a translation of poetry by her great-grandfather Mahakavi C. Subramania Bharati. She tells a fascinating story about Bharati improvising poetry.

The musical interlude towards the beginning features music composed and performed by Bradley Vines on baritone and alto saxophones. It also includes quotes from Anil Seth and Swami Sarvapriyananda. The quote from Anil Seth was taken from a masterclass he gave for the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2022/mar/23/understanding-consciousness-a-masterclass-with-neuroscientist-anil-seth). The quote from Swami Sarvapriyananda was taken from an interview he gave on the Waking Up app with Sam Harris (https://dynamic.wakingup.com/course/COFFD9B?code=SCE8C67C8&share_id=0B98BDDA&source=content%20share).

There is a segment of music at the end from a rendition of Bharati’s poem Nandala by O.S. Arun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MWlmEMqO98).

Mira’s concert in the Noontime Concerts series will be announced here: https://noontimeconcerts.org/

For information about Mira’s activities and forthcoming books, see her website: www.professormira.com/

This is an interview with Christian Howes (https://christianhowes.com/). He is a renowned violinist, educator, and entrepreneur. He’s a classically trained musician who has attained prominence as a jazz improviser. Chris has developed a systematic and comprehensive approach to teaching improvisation, empowering musicians of all levels to unlock their innate musical creativity. He integrates insights from meditation and yoga into his pedagogy, adding a unique dimension to the learning process. 

This interview includes an overview of Chris' methodology for learning to improvise, a demonstration of how he integrates meditation into his approach, and background on how he developed his philosophy and what effect it has had on musicians.

The musical interlude features a fragment from this presentation by Dr. Susan Rowland:
   • Jungian Arts-Base...  
The music was composed and performed by Bradley Vines.