WOMAD

Stree Shakti

From India

Appearing at Rivermead as part of their debut UK tour, Stree Shakti are India’s first all-female percussion-based group. They’re led by Anuradha Pal, a tabla player whose virtuoso performances have electrified Indian critics. And just as the group’s line-up is groundbreaking, so is their choice of material. They play in both the main traditions of Indian music, the Carnatic (mainly confined to the South) and the Hindustani (from the North), their instruments combine both traditions, and their music mixes both the classical and the contemporary.Anuradha Pal burst into the Indian music scene in 1988 when she was 17, although she had already been performing for six years even then, having studied with tabla masters such as Ustad Zakir Hussein. Her early performances were greeted with such enthusiasm that some suggested she was the new “Zakira,” which is as high a compliment as a tabla player can be paid. Since then, she has accompanied India’s finest singers and Kathak dancers as well as playing many solo shows on stage and TV. She appeared in the UK last year at the Bath festival and has also toured in the USA.Stree Shakti was formed in 1996. As well as tabla, the line-up includes violin, Latha Ramachar on khanjira, vocalist Vrinda Mundkur and ghatam player Sukanya Ramgopal. The ghatam is essentially a clay water pot, and players can change the tone it produces by wearing different sizes of rings on their fingers. Ramgopal has studied with T.H. “Vikku” Vinayakram, the Zakir Hussain of the ghatam, whose enthusiasm often leads him to toss the pot in the air in the more intense passages of a piece.