Mira (world music ensemble)

Last updated

Mira was a trans-cultural musical collaboration initiated by Martin Gordon [1] and Peter Culshaw in 1995. Martin Gordon is well-known through his pop pedigree and his involvement with Sparks, Jet, Radio Stars, John's Children and assorted others. Peter Culshaw is a journalist/musician who worked with the West India Company. [2] The pair began working together in Bombay in 1991 during a West India Company/Boy George recording.

Mira subsequently took shape initially as a performance art duo (under the names of Kevin Nehru and Doug Leppard) which made well-received appearances in London art galleries. Gordon and Culshaw then developed material for a live stage show ('New Hope for the Dead', choreographed by Joseph Houseal [3] ) that was performed at the Place Theatre, London, and which featured dancers, trapeze artists, martial arts performers and computer graphics. Mira's sole CD New Hope For The Dead, [4] [5] made an appearance in the World Music Chart Europe.[ citation needed ] The band performed at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival and disbanded later the same year.

Related Research Articles

Sting (musician) English musician and actor

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known as Sting, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He was the frontman, songwriter and bassist for new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1984. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.

Malcolm McLaren English artist and musician (1946–2010)

Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English impresario, visual artist, singer, songwriter, musician, clothes designer and boutique owner, notable for combining these activities in an inventive and provocative way. He is best known as a promoter and manager of bands the New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols.

Georg Solti Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor

Sir Georg Solti, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics and, being of Jewish background, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.

Jon Culshaw English comedian, actor (b. 1968)

Jonathan Peter Culshaw is an English actor, comedian and impressionist. He is best known for his work on the radio comedy Dead Ringers since 2000.

Chris Martin English musician, record producer, and philanthropist

Christopher Anthony John Martin is an English singer, songwriter and musician best known as the lead vocalist, pianist, guitarist and co-founder of rock band Coldplay, with whom he has won several accolades, including seven Grammy Awards and nine Brit Awards. They have sold over 100 million albums worldwide, making them the most successful band of the 21st century and one of the world's best-selling music artists. Martin appeared on Debrett's 2017 list of most influential people in the United Kingdom.

New York City Ballet American ballet company

New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's first music director. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.

Fred Gaisberg

Frederick William Gaisberg was an American musician, recording engineer and one of the earliest classical music producers for the gramophone. He himself did not use the term 'producer', and was not an impresario like his protégé Walter Legge of EMI or an innovator like John Culshaw of Decca. Gaisberg concentrated on talent-scouting and persuading performers to make recordings for the newly invented Gramophone.

Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Performing arts school set up by Paul McCartney in Liverpool, England

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) is a performing arts higher education institution in Liverpool, founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty and opened in 1996. LIPA offers 11 full-time BA (Hons) degrees in a range of fields across the performing arts, as well as three Foundation Certificate programmes of study in acting, music technology, and dance and popular music. LIPA offers full-time, one-year master's-level degree courses in acting (company) and costume making. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools.

Opera North Opera company based in Leeds, England

Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and the Theatre Royal, Newcastle. The company's orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, regularly performs and records in its own right. Operas are performed either in English translation or in the original language of the libretto, in the latter case usually with surtitles.

Bobby Steggert is an American therapist and former actor of theatre, television and film.

Nitin Sawhney British musician

Nitin Sawhney, D.Mus is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics, and spirituality. Sawhney is also active in the promotion of arts and cultural matters, is chair of the PRS Foundation, on the senate of the Ivor Novello Academy, on the board of trustees of theatre company Complicité, and is a patron of numerous film festivals, venues, and educational institutions. In 2021 he was an ambassador for the Royal Albert Hall.

Mira Calix British-based artist

Chantal Francesca Passamonte, known professionally as Mira Calix, was a South African-born, British-based audio and visual artist and musician signed to Warp Records.

John Culshaw

John Royds Culshaw, OBE was a pioneering English classical record producer for Decca Records. He produced a wide range of music, but is best known for masterminding the first studio recording of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, begun in 1958.

Martin Gordon English musician

Martin Gordon is an English musician who plays bass guitar, double bass, and piano. After a long period as band member and session musician, he embarked on a solo career in 2004. His most recent album release was in 2021.

Anne Pigalle French singer and musician

Anne Pigalle is a French singer and multimedia artist.

Philip Dodd is an English broadcaster, entrepreneur, curator, writer and editor. He is chairman of the creative industries company Made in China.

Entertainment One Ltd., commonly abbreviated as eOne, is an American-owned multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television series. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange before it was acquired by Hasbro on December 30, 2019.

<i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist</i> (film) 2012 film

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012 political thriller drama film directed by Mira Nair and starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, and Liev Schreiber. It is based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Mohsin Hamid. The film is a post-9/11 story about the impact of the terrorist attacks on one Pakistani man and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them.

Sunara Begum is an English visual and performance artist, filmmaker, photographer and writer of Bangladeshi descent. She uses installation, film, photography, live performance, sonics and text. Begum is the founder and director of Chand Aftara, a creation centre. Begum is also the co-founder of Living Legacies, a traditional music archive in Gambia and New Horizons Africa, a music and arts festival in Lagos, Nigeria.

Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University (LA) is Lancaster University's public arts organisation. The organisation presents performances, for the public, staff and students, through its campus venues the Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster Concerts Series and the Peter Scott Gallery.

References

  1. Richie Unterberger. "Martin Gordon Biography". AllMusic . Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  2. "West India Company". AllMusic . Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  3. "Arts Dialogue : Bahá´í Association for the Arts". Bahai-library.com. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  4. "Martin Gordon - official site". 7 March 2014. Archived from the original on 7 March 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  5. "New Hope For The Dead". AllMusic . Retrieved 22 June 2020.