Alchemy | Southbank Centre
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12 – 22 April 2012
Alchemy is Southbank Centre’s festival exploring the richness, contrasts and connections between the UK, India and South Asian culture. The festival returns for a third year, taking over the site with a wide-ranging programme of contemporary and traditional music and dance, debate, literature, film, craft and fashion.
Previous highlights have included composer AR Rahman, actor Meera Syal, writer Tahmima Anam, pop star Kailash Kher, Kathak choreographer and performer Gauri Sharma Tripathi, singer Begum Parveen Sultana, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, The Raghu Dixit Project and a day celebrating 40 years of Bangladesh and Jahan e Khusrau – Muzaffar Ali’s prestigious 9th World Sufi Music Festival.
This year we are proud to welcome a wide range of artists from across the globe including Asian Dub Foundation, Pete Lockett, Susheela Raman, Sachal Jazz Ensemble, Raghu Dixit Project with members of Bellowhead, Shankar Mahadevan & Purbuyan Chaterjee, plus many more.
Wednesday 11 April 2012 - Sunday 22 April 2012
Curated by Reedah El-Saie, Director of Mica Gallery, The Brit Pak presents work by a number of emerging British Pakistani artists.
Thursday 12 April 2012 - Saturday 21 April 2012
Join us for a refreshing, easy yoga session and enrich your physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
Purcell Room
Thursday 12 April 2012
Franz Osten's lavish 1928 silent film Shiraz is accompanied by a live score by internationally renowned tabla player and composer Sarvar Sabri and the Sabri Ensemble.
Royal Festival Hall
Thursday 12 April 2012
Asian Dub Foundation have always been at the forefront of musical resistance and politicisation and this unique event packs a potent agit-prop punch.
Blue Room, Spirit Level
Hetain Patel & Shane Solenki: Work in Progress
Thursday 12 April 2012
An artist and a poet with Gujarati heritage use speech, film, music, physical theatre and comedy to explore communication and language.
Spirit Level
Thursday 12 April 2012 - Sunday 22 April 2012
Looking for Kool is a journey of one woman's life and the heavy price of war through the secret labyrinth of one of Southbank Centre's underground spaces.
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Dr. L. Subramaniam, Kavita Krishnamoorthy & Ambi Subramaniam
Thursday 12 April 2012
This is a rare opportunity to see a family of acclaimed Indian musicians, including an award-winning singer and a renowned composer, perform together.
Queen Elizabeth Hall
From Here, Where? A future for cultural industries?
Friday 13 April 2012
An international provocation, this debate will set the tone for Southbank Centre's Alchemy festival, bringing together three outstanding figures from the worlds of economics, philosophy, design and
Purcell Room
Saturday 14 April 2012
Humble The Poet is a Toronto-bred MC and spoken word artist whose work embodies the changing nature and resilience of one of the world's most diverse cities.
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Confluence with SAMYO, the National South Asian Youth Orchestra
Saturday 14 April 2012
Confluence brings together some of the country's most inspirational young musicians for a showcase of incredible talent across a range of musical genres.
The Front Room at QEH
DJ Nihal Presents The Burban Mela
Saturday 14 April 2012
A special mixed bill show curated by BBC Radio 1's Nihal and featuring the best in the emerging Burban - 'brown urban' - scene in the UK. This is urban music with a distinctly Asian vibe.
Sunday 15 April 2012
Be part of Southbank Centre's newly commissioned Bollywood film. Learn a Bollywood dance routine at these workshops and become a dancer in the film.
Purcell Room
Sunday 15 April 2012
A film screening of a freewheeling adaptation of the King Lear fable, a gripping emotional drama of generational conflict set in contemporary London.
Purcell Room
Sunday 15 April 2012
Following a sold-out tour in India, sarod player Soumik Datta, 'one of the biggest new music talents in Britain' (Vogue), returns with prolific tabla maestro Arif Khan (grandson of the doyen Ustad
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Pete Lockett Rajasthan Collaboration
Sunday 15 April 2012
Alchemy presents a boundary breaking collaboration between internationally acclaimed percussionist Pete Lockett and 16 traditional musicians from the Shekawati and Marwar regions of Rajasthan.
Blue Room, Spirit Level
Lui Zhenyun and Neel Mukherjee
Sunday 15 April 2012
Liu Zhenyun and Neel Mukherjee discuss the role of the writer in China and India respectively, as the two countries emerge as the new global superpowers for the 21st century.
Level 5 Function Room
Nikesh Shukla - The Ethnic Writer - How to Avoid Labels
Monday 16 April 2012
Nikesh Shukla, whom the media call an ethnic writer, presents a motivational speech on how to be a writer and not an ethnic writer, unless there's a lucrative reason to be.
Queen Elizabeth Hall
Susheela Raman and Pakistan Quawaalis
Monday 16 April 2012
Tamil Londoner Susheela Raman, with her unique band of London and Rajasthan based musicians, takes on the mighty Mein Mir Qawals, the Sufi powerhouses of Lahore.
Level 5 Function Room
Ahmed Rashid: Parkistan On the Brink
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Focusing on the heart of the world's most unstable region, Pakistan on the brink examines the complex relationship between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the West.
Purcell Room
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Written and performed by Matthew Sharp, Sameer Rao and Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate from 1999 - 2009), Whale Music is a long-distance love song with cello and bansuri flute.