Roopa Panesar’s ATMA (The Soul)
The sitar player plays music from her album ATMA, alongside some of the finest Indian classical and jazz musicians in the UK today.
ATMA is a rich musical meeting ground of western and traditional Indian instruments, performed by her eight-piece group.
Sitar and tabla beautifully weave and interchange with double bass, guitar, tanpura and Indian mouth harp (morsing), with electronic textures, plus kanjira, the paired jori, ghatam (clay pot) and double-headed barrel drum, mirdangam.
Panesar’s ATMA is a journey that beautifully portrays all aspects of life – love, loss, grief, separation and ultimately the bliss of union (‘atma’ encapsulates the concept of the eternal self – or soul ). After a period of personal loss, Panesar wrote the music echoing feelings associated with challenges of life, with the intention to uplift.
ATMA was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios and was made possible by the Asian Arts Agency as part of its Breaking Barriers’ Innovate Music Commissions.
Presented by Asian Arts Agency.
Performers
Roopa Panesar sitar
Shahbaz Hussain tabla
Bangalore Prakash mridangam, ghatam, morsing (indian jews harp)
Giuliano Modarelli guitar
Camilo Tirado live electronics, textural percussion
Surdarshan Chana jori
Ben Hazleton double bass
Need to know
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.