The Wight Proms is delighted to bring you music throughout the year and not just in August for the festival!

Join Dr Suma Sreeshyla for an introduction to Indian classical dance, accompanied by tabla, veena, flute and percussion, for an intimate lunchtime performance in the stunning setting of Northwood House’s Ballroom. You can join us for lunch directly after the performance, served in the Drawing Room. Select from our three options when buying tickets.

Dr Suma Sreeshyla – Dancer
Rupert Brown – Percussion
Shanta Boorle – Veena
David C Heath – Flute
Dr Jaganath Boorle – Tabla

If you would like to join us for lunch afterwards, please pre-order by the end of the Monday, two days before the concert.

BIOGRAPHIES

What attracted Dr Suma Sreeshyla to Indian classical dance was: the intricate hand gestures, the rhythmic foot work and the power of storytelling through movements. However, the thing that resonated with her most about this art is the connection to centuries of culture and history, which is something she feels every time she dances. She has trained in two different dance forms: Bhartanatyam and Kathak, under the guidance of various gurus, having experienced a breadth of different styles and interpretations of these styles. Suma is the Artistic Director for the Asian Cultural Club, which sees her writing, directing and performing musicals, which depict stories from Hindu mythology within contemporary context. Additionally, she runs a dance school, on the island, called Shree Dance Academy.

Rupert Brown works in the music industry and has taught drums and percussion at a music college for 18 years and privately for 25 years. He has recorded LPs and toured with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Roy Ayers, Nigel Kennedy, Cher, Diana Ross, Darryl Hall, Lighthouse Family, Robbie Robertson (The Band), Jill Scott, Phillip Gould (Level 42) Jarle Bernhoft (Grammy nominated) and many more. In addition to playing drums he has written and produced for recording company labels such as Wonderful Sounds, Domino Records, DC Recordings and Peace Frog and Holistic Records, making abstract minimalistic music, incorporating exotic instruments and creating landscapes and tones to a funk soul – Afro beat, Disco and Soul – Jazz style.

Born in Manchester, David C Heath is a flautist and composer who began writing music in 1975 based on the harmonies and rhythms of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. His music has been championed by many leading performers including: James Galway, Nigel Kennedy, Evelyn Glennie, William Bennett, Jess Gilam, John Anderson, Gerard McChrystal and Marin Alsop, as well as The Philharmonia Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Chamber Orchestra. Several of David’s pieces; Out of the Cool, Coltrane, Rumania, On Fire, Shiraz, Gentle Dreams, and The Celtic have become standard works and been recorded worldwide; the Gramophone Magazine commenting that he “…has developed a voice and style that’s developed into a genre of its own”. In 2004 he wrote the score for director Ahmed Jamal’s award winning HBO documentary about Daniel Pearl The Journalist and the Jihadi and in 2016 scored Rahm by the same director; a Pakistani interpretation of Shakespeare’s Measure for measure recently screened on Channel 4. In 2014 David’s percussion concerto African Sunrise-Manhattan Rave was performed in the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, and he has also orchestrated and conducted the legendary Pakistani singers Quratulian Balouch and Shazia Manzoor with the BBC Philharmonic. In 2005 he met one of the world’s great psychics and studied with her for 12 years, an experience which has inspired many of his most recent works; The Song of ISIS, Rhapsody of the Spheres, Hope Springs Eternal, Colourful World, The Illumination and four internet films: The Wisdom of Sophia, The Rise of Fatima, Iceland Quest & the Book of Revelation and Illuminati & the Priory of Sion. He recently acted in his son Liam’s short film The Cathar, and has written several film scripts: Irish Lament, Ogoni, Tinsel, A Caliphate of Light, and a metaphysical reworking of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. As a flute player, David played principal flute with the London Metropolitan Orchestra for many years, playing on James Bond, Inspector Morse, and Hilary and Jackie movies, and has also recorded solos for Sting, William Orbit, Dominic Miller, Michael Kamen, Barrington Pheloung, and played on the Free Nelson Mandela single by Jerry Dammers. In 2014 Heath produced Nigel Kennedy’s CD Recital. In 2015 he played solo bass flute on Guy Ritchie’s film Man from Uncle, in the world premiere of Martyn Bennett’s Grit, and collaborated with Asian Producer ‘Naughty Boy’ for the BBC Proms.

Santa Rajya Lakshmi Boorle trained in Indian classical dance and music and plays the Veena; a string instrument made from the jack fruit tree. She is always smiling, calm and collected, with immense knowledge in Sanskrit and Carnatic music, and her son Jagannadha will be accompanying on Tabla.

Tickets and more information is from the official Wight Proms website: www.wightproms.co.uk/wednesdays