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Inter-religious music ensemble The Gospel Sufi Project to perform in Jakarta
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The Sufi Gospel Project performs at an event. (www.facebook.com/SonamKalraAndTheSufiGospelProject//File)
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ndian inter-religious ensemble The Gospel Sufi Project, with its unique blend of religiously diverse musicians whose compositions draw from the musical traditions of various religions, is set to perform in Jakarta on Jan. 12 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School Jakarta (GMIS Jakarta) auditorium in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta.
The ensemble is fronted by Sikh vocalist Sonam Kalra, who is backed by a Christian guitarist and keyboardist, Muslim sarangi and tabla players as well as a Hindu flautist and percussionist.
During the concert, visitors can expect to listen to some unusual juxtaposition of hymns and religious songs from different religious traditions, like for instance John Newton’s famous church hymn “Amazing Grace” intertwined with the words of Sufi icon Amir Khusrau. They will also listen to the melodies of Sufi poet Bulleh Shah interspersed with Christian texts in English and Gaelic.
Read also: The sound of music from an orphanage
According to Kalra, the project is an effort to blend all the voices of faith, through the use of song, music and the spoken word. She added that she had found a musical parallel between traditional Western gospel music with Indian classical sounds.
“Indian spiritual texts are also enriched by elements of Western poetry […]. No matter what the language of the lyrics is, or the ethnicity of the sounds, there is but one language, the language of faith,” she said in a press release. (kes)
