PBO Musicians to Perform with Indian Duo

Poster for the concert being discussed, showing William Rossel and Arjun Verma (from the Eventbrite event page)

This coming Saturday the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) will host a rather unique “meeting of minds.” Four members the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO) will join forces with two performers of Indian music, Arjun Verma on sitar and William Rossel on tabla. They will perform a new composition, “Bach in Bengal,” scored for sitar, tabla, violin (Lisa Grodin), viola (Maria Caswell), cello (Paul Hale), and bass (Wen Yang). The program will also include a set of variations on a bourrée movement by Johann Sebastian Bach, probably taken from the BWV 996 lute suite in E minor. The variations were composed by sarod master Ali Akbar Khan and were subsequently arranged by Verma, along with George Ruckert and Rhiannon Ledwell.

The program is the result of Verma’s SFCM residency. Verma received a grant from Mosaic America, which is presenting the concert in collaboration with PBO. The variations will be performed with permission from the Ali Akbar Khan Foundation.

This performance will begin at 2 p.m. this coming Saturday, April 23. It will take place in the Chang Chi Ming Hall in the new SFCM building at 100 Van Ness Avenue. There will be no charge for admission, but registration will be required. Registration will be processed through an Eventbrite event page.