Metal, classical, traditional: Indian arts festival’s unique music collaborations
SINGAPORE – For over two decades, Esplanade’s Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts has celebrated the evolving spirit of Indian arts in Singapore.
The 2025 edition, which runs from Nov 21 to 30, includes two major concerts that exemplify this with unexpected and unique music collaborations.
Cosmic Dissolution, an Esplanade commission, features Singaporean Vedic metal band Rudra playing their first concert with a full orchestra in a team-up with home-grown classical orchestra Resound Collective. It takes place at Esplanade Concert Hall on Nov 29.
Samudra – An Ocean Of Musical Traditions, by Indian classical music ensemble SwaRhythm Singapore, includes original compositions that blend Indian, Chinese, Malay and Western influences. Co-produced with Esplanade, it takes place at Esplanade Concert Hall on Nov 21.
The Straits Times speaks to the composers and musicians behind Cosmic Dissolution and Samudra to find out more.
Rudra, one of the most accomplished bands in the Singapore metal scene, are no strangers to stretching the limits of the genre.
In the 2021 edition of Kalaa Utsavam, the quartet performed with three classical Indian musicians – singer Aditi Gopinathan, flautist Raghavendran Rajasekaran and mridangam percussion player Viknash Balakirshnan – in a gig that showcased updated and rearranged versions of Rudra songs.
In 2024, the band performed live with puppeteers in three languages – Sanskrit, Chinese and English – in a collaboration with The Finger Players for a show that is part of the Esplanade’s Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts.
For Cosmic Dissolution, the band will cross off something that has been on their wish list: Perform with a full classical orchestra.
Lead singer and bass player Kathir, 51, says the concert is an opportunity to create something unprecedented, especially for an extreme metal band in Asia. “It is a challenge as well as an opportunity because there’s no reference for us to learn from, no one has done this in Asia.”
The 33-year-old band will be on stage with the 56-piece symphony orchestra from Resound Collective, who is no stranger to unconventional pairings too.
In February, the re:Sound orchestra performed with Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros in two concerts at the Esplanade Theatre. In 2022, it performed with Singaporean jazz pianist and Cultural Medallion recipient Jeremy Monteiro at the Singapore Conference Hall.
However, the show with Rudra is its loudest collaboration to date, so much so that Resound chairman Mervin Beng had to procure earplugs due to the high volume generated by the metal band.
Beng says: “It’s my responsibility to see that the musicians come out intact, right? A couple of the musicians already had earplugs, but I still had to purchase over 60, which shows you that this is really a unique project.”
Kathir says the 90-minute show’s set list will comprise 14 songs from the band’s discography, including their newest album Antithesis (2025), which was inspired by mediaeval Sanskrit text Dashashloki. Rudra, formed in 1992, also comprise drummer Shiva and guitarists Vinod and Devan.
The band worked with the concert’s orchestral arranger, acclaimed home-grown musician Chok Kerong, to map out the orchestral arrangements to their songs.
“We would share with Kerong what kind of ideas we envisioned, the mood, the vibrancy, through our own language, our vocabulary. And Kerong was very good, he could understand what we were trying to express through our songs.”
Beng, who is in his 60s, says: “Kerong isn’t doing the traditional harmonisation to the songs. His background is such that we’re going to hear much more exciting and contemporary harmonisations for the orchestra than we would normally do.”
Kathir was “blown away” when Rudra and the re:Sound orchestra had their first rehearsal together at Esplanade in September.
“My bandmates and I were just looking at one another in awe as to how the songs transformed.
“We got the audio engineer to replay the recorded tracks and we were in disbelief. It felt like we were presenting the soundtrack for the battle scenes in The Lord Of The Rings films (2001 to 2003).”
Kathir says Rudra started discussing doing a symphony show with Esplanade about three years ago. They started researching local orchestras, but it was the Sigur Ros shows that convinced them to go with re:Sound. “Re:Sound was unique, and it always wanted to be different, which for us, is a very metal thing to do.”
For Beng, it was Chok’s involvement as arranger that convinced him that the collaboration would work. “It makes a huge difference to us, who arranges this type of music. It has to be somebody you trust. Frankly, there was only one person on my mind and luckily for Esplanade, they mentioned the same name, Kerong.
“The basis of the music which Rudra are playing is harmonically really quite similar to what we are doing, only a lot louder.”
Kathir is excited for the audience to experience what he describes as one of the band’s most ambitious undertakings to date.
“It’s not just about us. On stage, there is a whole orchestra, and we are within that. It’s probably one of our biggest collaborations, given that we have 56 other people on stage with us.”
Where: Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: Nov 29, 7.30pm
Admission: $55 from Sistic, go to
str.sg/eawn (https://str.sg/eawn?ref=inline-article)
or call 6348-5555
Home-grown music performances that merge Indian, Chinese, Malay and Western music is not a new thing in multicultural Singapore.
But with Samudra, SwaRhythm Singapore founder Nawaz Mirajkar is very careful in ensuring that the performance’s mix of music from different cultures does not come across as perfunctory.
“The main challenge is respecting the depth of each tradition while finding common ground. You can’t blend cultures superficially. It has to come from understanding, listening and empathy,” he tells The Straits Times in an interview at SwaRhythm’s rehearsal space at Aliwal Arts Centre.
SwaRhythm’s largest production to date, the concert features 35 performers, including the group’s seven core musicians, traditional Chinese and Malay musicians, Western classical musicians, as well as a sand artist.
“Every musician brings his or her own world – Indian ragas, Chinese pentatonics, Malay melodies – and it takes sensitivity to weave them into one tapestry without losing their essence.”
Samudra, a Sanskrit word that means “sea” or “ocean”, is a double bill celebration that marks both SwaRhythm Singapore’s 10th anniversary and Singapore’s SG60 festivities.
The 90-minute show features new multi-ethnic compositions by Singaporean composers and musicians that include Sky, Silk And Sea composed by Gu Wei, Bisikan Samudera (Whispers Of The Ocean) by Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin and Jal Katha (Water Stories) by Avik Chari.
The concert also features guest conductor Dedric Wong, resident conductor of the Ding Yi Music Company.
Nawaz, 48, says: “Many multicultural works focus on fusion. Samudra focuses on conversation. It’s not about mixing genres. It’s about deep listening and responding. We let each culture breathe and shine, and then we allow them to meet in natural, organic ways. That’s what gives Samudra its emotional authenticity.”
The concert features multiple works exploring water as a symbol of connection. Nawaz adds: “The ocean has always inspired me. It connects lands, stories and traditions. Historically, music and culture travelled across the seas, linking India, China and South-east Asia. I wanted Samudra to capture that same journey, the ebb and flow of cultural exchange through sound.”
The audience will literally hear the sound of water become music, thanks to water percussionist Foo Sek Sheng. Nawaz says: “The water percussion uses actual water as a rhythmic medium through splashes, drips and resonant tones. It symbolises nature’s rhythm and connects perfectly to Samudra’s theme.”
The finale piece, Confluence, is a composition from 20 years ago, incorporating all the other elements into a unifying piece. Written by Nawaz and pianist-composer Renu Suresh, it pays tribute to the confluence of rivers and seas, a musical reflection on unity beyond borders.
Says Renu, 60: “It’s interesting because we did this piece 20 years ago, but it’s still an evergreen piece. The musicians who played this piece told us that no matter which instrument plays the song, it sounds really good because it simply flows through the player and floats through to the listener. Like the ocean, it embraces everything it touches.”
The show will also be a visual treat, thanks to a sand artist who will make art in real time with the music. Says Nawaz: “As the soundscapes flow, the artist will create evolving visuals of waves, rivers and journeys reflecting the emotions of each composition. It adds a powerful visual poetry to the concert, making the experience immersive and multisensory.”
Where: Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Drive
When: Nov 21, 7.30pm
Admission: $50 from Sistic, go to
str.sg/qBiU (https://str.sg/qBiU?ref=inline-article)
or call 6348-5555
