The Commonwealth Resounds

Legendary virtuoso sitarist, composer, teacher, and writer Ravi Shankar is India's most esteemed musical ambassador and a singular phenomenon whose artistry crosses all cultural and musical boundaries. A student of the illustrious guru “Baba” Ustad Allaudin Khan, Mr. Shankar was already one of the brightest stars in India before coming to international attention in the ’60s. Since then, he has been the foremost pioneer in disseminating India’s rich classical music tradition to the West.

A prolific and sought-after composer, Ravi Shankar has written numerous works for Western collaborations, in addition to his many traditional ragas and talas. His “Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra” was commissioned and premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn. A second sitar concerto, “Raga-Mala,” [A Garland of Ragas] was commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta in 1980.

Ravi Shankar has composed extensively for film and ballet. His scores for Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed “Apu” trilogy raised film music to a new standard of excellence, and he was nominated for both a Grammy and Oscar for his original score to “Gandhi,” the Academy-Award-winning classic by Sir Richard Attenborough.

Ravi Shankar’s extensive discography of more than 60 albums includes Angel Records’ 1996 release “In Celebration,” a lavishly documented four-CD retrospective of his greatest recordings issued in honor of his 75th birthday.

Mr. Shankar continues to tour each season all over the world with regular visits to Europe and the Far East. He is the author of three books: “My Music, My Life” (in English), “Rag Anurag” (in Bengali), and “Raga Mala,” (English), an autobiography that was released in 1999.

Patti Boulaye came to this country at the age of 16 and appeared in her first West End Musical Hair at the Shaftesbury Theatre. This was followed by Two Gentleman of Verona at the Phoenix and a 12 months stint as a member of the girl group The Flirtations. She returned to the London stage in Jesus Christ Superstar and was cast in her first starring role, Yum Yum, in the Black Mikado at the Cambridge Theatre in the West End. After starring as Bisi in the highly successful African film Bisi Daughter of the River she returned to London where she won the New Faces TV Series and the All Winners Final Gala Show. She has continued to work on stage, in film and television and as a recording artist. In May 2005 she produced and starred in the permier production of her self-penned dance Musical Patti Boulaye’s SUN DANCE which ran for a very successful six week season in London at the Hackney Empire.

As a member of the official Queen’s Golden Jubilee Entertainment Committee, Patti got together a 5000 strong gospel choir for the 4th June Jubilee procession in front of HM the Queen. She also wrote Jubilee Song (Celebrate Good News) for the 5000 singers to dance and sing during the Procession up The Mall.

Patti is a Founder Member of the Patron’s (Prince Michael of Kent) Enterprise Club for GENESIS the facilitator organisation for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the promotion of Small Business, Patron of the Eastside Educational Trust and Patron of Women Into Business and is a well-known speaker on the fund raising circuit for numerous charities.

Since 2002, she has helped present and organise many fund raising events including Reaching Out For Africa at the Royal Albert Hall and Scotland Reaching Out for Africa at the Clyde Auditorium for Support For Africa, a Charity, of which she is the Founder and President, formed in 2001 for the alleviation of HIV/AIDS in Africa. This charity has been Patti’s main focus in recent years, but she continues to advance her career as an artiste.

Patti is a Governor of BADA the famous drama academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA).

Stuart Mole has been a strong supporter of Commonwealth Resounds! since its inception in 2005. While Director-General of the Royal Commonwealth Society, he provided Resounds! with its very first concert platform at the newly-extended Commonwealth Club in London. This was shortly before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta, where the Commonwealth Resounds! initiative had its inaugural programme, to much critical acclaim. Thereafter, he worked closely with Alison Cox and Martin Wess in the more ambitious Commonwealth Resounds! programme at the 2007 Commonwealth summit in Uganda.

Responsible for the organisation of the multi-faith Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey between 2001 and 2009, Stuart Mole’s productive partnership with Alison and Martin has helped bring many young, talented Commonwealth musicians to the celebration, to perform before The Queen and Commonwealth leaders.

A keen choral singer himself, Stuart was a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral as a boy and, now as a tenor, sings with choirs in London and the South of England. A former Director in the Commonwealth Secretariat (where he worked for 14 years), he has now retired from the Royal Commonwealth Society but maintains his lifetime devotion to Commonwealth causes.

Dr Geraldine Connor is a freelance Theatre Director and an ethnomusicologist by profession. She was a senior teacher at the University of Leeds between 1992 and 2004. Dr Connor is a woman with numerous abilities and a wide knowledge of music genres; she is a composer, performer, musical director and vocal animator specialising in mainstream rock and pop, Caribbean carnival, Caribbean folk and African American Gospel, Jazz and Blues styles.

In 2009 Dr Connor received the Chaconia Medal Gold for long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago for ethnomusicology and culture at the national awards ceremony for the 47th independence anniversary of the country.

Dr Connor has conceived, composed and directed Carnival Messiah, a radical theatrical reinvention inspired by George Fredrick Handel’s Messiah (1999 and 2002, West Yorkshire Playhouse: Port of Spain, Trinidad 2003 and Carnival 2004), and also directed the acclaimed premiere co-production between the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Adzido Pan African Dance of Yaa Asantewaa, Warrior Queen, which successfully toured Britain and Ghana, Africa, in 2001/2002. This year she directed Carnival Messiah (Queen’s Hall, Trinidad and Tobago. Royal Albert Hall, London), Blues in the Night (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Vodou Nation (UK Arts and West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Performance Poet Ras Anansi-I for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

As Director of Arts for the Royal Over-Seas League, over the past twenty-five years, Roderick Lakin has greatly expanded and developed its international arts programme, which has given support to hundreds of talented young professional artists and musicians from all over the UK and the Commonwealth. The ROSL Music Competition sees over 300 performers compete for awards each year and has established a solid reputation as a discovery platform for young musicians now at the forefront of the music profession. In addition ROSL ARTS supports concerts by prize and scholarship winners, recordings and exhibitions both in the UK and the Commonwealth.

Roderick Lakin was born in Aberdeen in 1949 and was educated at Robert Gordon’s College, the University of Aberdeen and St John’s College, Oxford. He has worked for the Oxford Playhouse and the Roundhouse Theatre, London; was Director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music from 1978 – 1983; and since 1984 has been Director of Arts for the Royal Over-Seas League.

Roderick Lakin, Director of Arts for the Royal Over-Seas League was awarded an MBE in 2004 in the Diplomatic and Overseas section of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. In 2007, he received an HonARAM.

After studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1968 to 1971, where he was the first recipient of the Sidney Langston Prize for Brass playing, John Smith worked in London as a freelance musician. In 1974 he joined the orchestra of English National Opera and remained there, as Principal Tuba, for almost 20 years.

In 1994 he joined the Musicians' Union (MU) as a full time Official and was promoted to the post of Assistant General Secretary (Media) in 1997. He was elected General Secretary of the MU in December 2002 and is in his second term of office as President of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM).

Other UK appointments include: Director of Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), Director of the Educational Recording Agency and Director of the British Copyright Council. He is also a member of the TUC General Council.