“Carola and I? It’s more than a friendship. I don’t know how to describe it, honestly,” mridangist Charu Hariharan admits. Drenched in musical lineage and prowess, she met Spanish vocalist and clarinet player Carola Ortiz at Kolkata’s International Guitar Festival over three years ago and since then, there’s been no looking back.
Collaborating on albums and previous tours, they’re bringing together Charu’s vision in the upcoming Crossover Project, which has the female artistes joined on stage by flamenco guitarist Santhosh Chandran, vocalist and Charu’s brother, Sreekanth Hariharan, and keyboard artiste Bhuvanesh.
The Project, conceptualised by Women of Rhythm director Sonia Acharya, evolved from a chance conversation.
“Charu was telling me about her and Carola’s amazing connection and how they complement each other and wanted to do an India tour together. I realised that we needed a proper set of artistes, which was when we brought Santhosh into the mix,” Sonia says.
The six-city tour is a first for Women of Rhythm, which aims to give female artistes a meaningful platform to showcase and improve their talent while engaging in collaborations with male artistes that put them on an equal playing field.
Santhosh, of course, is no novice to the artistes, having collaborated with Charu and Sreekanth under the Music Mojo banner in 2016. With over a decade of collaborative experience under his belt, he says this tour is just as challenging and exciting as his previous artistic explorations.
The aim explains the involvement of Sreekanth, who Charu jokingly says she’s been collaborating with “since we’ve known what music is.”
A playback singer with hits like the recent Bigil track, ‘Unakaaga’ under his belt, Sreekanth says The Crossover Project is special in more ways than one.
“Having been born and brought up in Chennai, as well as participating in Super Singer here, I’ve seen firsthand what it means to have an experienced audience in a place that has so much music. Playback is fulfilling in its own way, but this project brings together our diverse backgrounds and musical persona,” he shares. Featuring original compositions by Charu, Carola, and Santhosh, the artistes say they hope to represent their respective styles of Carnatic, Catalan, and Flamenco as authentically as possible in one, cohesive performance.
“It’s a perfect fit, the three of us, especially given Santhosh and my shared roots in Spanish music with our love for Indian melody. What I think is most enriching, though, is how much I feel I individually grow from a collaboration and how much it impacts my sound, my style, and my music,” Carola shares.
For keyboardist Bhuvanesh, the project marks his foray into collaborative performance and, well, he couldn’t be more excited.
With shows completed in Pune, Baroda, and Mumbai, the tour makes a stopover in Chennai before wrapping up with shows in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram later this month.
The Crossover Project takes place at Savera Hotel’s Bay 146 on February 7.