This is a double-sided A5 flyer for a festival of music from the subcontinent entitled ‘Indian in London’. The festival featured British South Asian musicians and premiered in May of 1997, and was held again on 27, 28 and 29 September later that year. Baluji Shrivastav gave his performance on the sitar and surbahar (bass sitar), on 28 September the Union Chapel in Islington. The evening was entitled “Night of the Lotus”, and celebrated the ancient musical tradition of the synthesis of Hindustani and Persian classical music.

This A5 programme was produced for a festival of “music from the Indian sub-continent which is played in the UK”. The programme presented British South Asian artists and musicians, and featured Baluji Shrivastav as a sitar soloist, and together with his jazz band. The performances were held at the Union Chapel in Islington between 10- 24 May 1997. This festival programme provides details on all the performances, events and workshops held, and also includes a brief background to the festival and the music of the sub continent.

This black and white image was taken at a performance of ‘Portraits of the Dark’ on its national tour in 1991 at Leeds College. The image features musicians Clive Bell, Mike Ripsher, Stephen Bull and vocalist Sanyogita Kumari, who all accompanied Baluji Shrivastav on sitar and harmonium.

This colour image was taken during the London tour of Baluji Shrivastav’s production of ‘Portraits of the Dark’ in 1991. The image features Baluji on sitar, Jagdish Mistry on violin, Sarvar Sabri on tabla, Tristran Llewelyn on the synthesiser and vocalist Sanyogita Kumari. This performance was held at Christ church in Highbury in London.

This three-page script is from an Urdu oratorio, ‘The Tragic Love of Sohini and Mahival’ by Baluji Shrivastav and Dario Marianelli. The story is set in a village in the Punjab and tells of star-crossed lovers and the price they pay for their devotion to each other, much like the European story of Romeo and Juliet. The piece was written by Baluji as part of a process to create an Indian opera. The performance was held on 18 May 1997, at the Union Chapel in Islington, as part of the ‘Indian in London’ festival. The script includes the narrative in English, Urdu and in Urdu transliteration. Baluji’s composition was performed by Amelia Cuni as Sohini, Baluji Shrivastav playing the Sitar, Surbahar,Swarmandal and Pakhavaj, Vishwaa Prakash as the Narrator and Sohini’s husband, Yusuf Ali Khan on the tabla and other percussion instruments, David Brown as Mahival and Fabienne Audeoud as Jannat, read more

This A5 programme was produced for ‘A Real View’, a public festival of arts and culture which aimed to create the widest possible access to arts participation for local disabled people in Hammersmith and Fulham. The events were co-ordinated by Shape London, an organisation which enables access to the arts for disabled people. Baluji Shrivastav performed at the festival on 15 March 1997, and was described as “an exciting new generation sitarist”. He performed with an ensemble at St Paul’s Church in London.

This hand written document describes the stage movements and musical cues of the first five “portraits” or scenes, in Baluji Shrivastav’s 1990 production ‘Portraits of the Dark’. In this production, Baluji aimed illustrate the dramatic periods in his life so far, as a blind musician. Through a musical performance, which fused Indian classical music, jazz and Arabic music, Baluji also wanted to convey to the audience what life is like for blind people.

This document features a colour coded stage direction plan and musical cues for Baluji Shrivastav’s musical production entitled ‘Portraits of the Dark’. This piece was composed and directed by Baluji in1990, and aimed to illustrate the dramatic points of Baluji’s life as a blind musician. The musical journey also aimed to convey to sighted people what life is like for non-sighted people.

On September 26 1992, Baluji Shrivastav performed his production entitled ‘Portraits of the Dark’ at the South Bank Centre in London. These programme notes provide background explanations to each of the scenes in the production, which depicts the dramatic stages of Baluji’s life as a blind musician. Through the musical journey of this performance, which fused Indian classical music with jazz and Arabic music, Baluji aimed to convey to sighted people what it is like to be a blind musician. Baluji composed ‘Portraits of the Dark’, and was accompanied by fellow musicians Mick Ripsher on tabla, Stephen Bull on violin, Sanyogita Kumari on Indian vocals, Linda Shanovitch on Western vocals, Clive Bell on the flute, and Tristram Llewellyn on the Synthesiser.

This is a press review of Baluji Shrivastav’s performance, ‘Portraits of the Dark’ at Centrespace, the Central Library in Hounslow. The piece was written by Mark Trewin for Bazaar Magazine. The author analyses each of the different segments of the production, which aimed to portray the dramatic episodes of Baluji’s life and to convey to a sighted person what it feels like being a blind musician. Baluji was accompanied by six other musicians including Sarwar Sabri on tabla, Tristram Llewellyn on the synthesiser, Linda Shanson on western vocals, Sanyogita Kumari on Indian vocal, Jagdish Mistry on the violin and Clive Bell on the Indian flute.