Shivaraj Natraj, Luan Pommier, and Khaleb Roberts (Virtual Concert)
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Shivaraj Natraj, Luan Pommier, and Khaleb Roberts
Images courtesy of the artists
The #BerkleeAnywhere Concert Series features Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee students performing virtually wherever they are around the world. We may be separated by distance, but music empowers us to unite. Wherever you are, we invite you to connect with us every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. EDT on Berklee’s IGTV(Opens in a new window) and Facebook(Opens in a new window) pages.
This week is a special #BerkleeBound episode featuring three outstanding entering fall 2020 students.
About the Artists
Shivaraj Natraj(Opens in a new window), a.k.a. the Konnakol Beatboxer, is an internationally renowned vocal artist hailing from Bangalore, India. He is one of the rarest kinds of beatboxers in the world, mixing beatboxing and the traditional South Indian vocal percussive art form called konnakol, a vocal representation of the vast sea of rhythmic theory and aesthetics of South India. Some of the features of this art form are; the application of mathematical concepts of arithmetic progression to rhythm, using rhythm as a sense of emotion, and complex number-play of syllables with different time signatures. In order to make this old artform accessible, Natraj fuses konnakol with beatboxing. He will also perform with the mridangam, a traditional Carnatic percussion instrument.
Luan Pommier(Opens in a new window) is a singer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean. Since the age of 14, she has been an ambassador of the Global Rainbow Foundation, based in the Mauritius Islands, helping people with disabilities around the world. Born visually impaired into a family of musicians, she developed musical abilities early, such as perfect pitch and a musical sensibility. She started singing and playing the piano by herself at the age of 3. Today, she can play several instruments (ka, violin, guitar, and flute, among others) and is self-taught on most of them. Pommier got the chance to meet and play with Jesus Molina, and share musical words and experiences with his quartet during the Festival Around the Piano in 2018. She has also met local and international musicians and artists such as Malika Tirolien, Maher Beauroy, Fred Wesley, Mario Canonge, and Daniel Gassin, among many others.
Khaleb Roberts(Opens in a new window) is a singer from Riverview, Florida, and his signature musical style is choral. Although not something very commonly used in mainstream music today, Roberts takes the technique and training, and applies it to whatever genre or style of music makes it most effective. He is currently master-musician certified and has been in six honor choirs including All-State, All-County, Florida ACDA, and Southern Division ACDA. They’ve all taught him that when making music together, there is nothing outside that matters. Within the walls of the choir room, everyone is a unit and an extension of their partner. Those experiences may have been short, but the lessons learned will last a lifetime.
How to Watch
Tune in at 8:00 p.m. on Berklee's Facebook(Opens in a new window) or IGTV(Opens in a new window)
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