- This event is over. However, time travel possible through our Audio & Video! See upcoming events
Strings Across The Ocean
Musical Connections Between India and Europe
Speaker
Some instruments travel so far, they turn world history into world harmony!
This lecture follows that long, intertwined history through the journeys of stringed instruments: objects that silently carried culture across empires, oceans, and eras. From the short-necked lute of ancient Gandhara that travelled west to become the medieval European lute, to the Italian violin that arrived on colonial ships in the 16th century before being transformed into a beloved Carnatic instrument, the movement of strings reveals centuries of exchange. Today’s global sitar and electric guitar continue that story of evolution and mutual influence.
Presented as part of the South Asian Symphony Foundation’s mission of “music beyond borders,” this edition of the Symphony Lecture reflects on cultural entanglement, the circulation of musical ideas, and the power of sound to bridge distance. Following earlier explorations of music, identity, and freedom, Professor Schofield’s lecture extends the conversation to show how string instruments illuminate questions of belonging, hybridity, and connection across continents.
An evening to listen, learn, and follow the threads that tie our musical worlds across time and tide.
In collaboration with:
Speaker
Katherine Schofield
Katherine Butler Schofield is Professor of South Asian Music and History and Head of the Department of Music at King’s College London. She trained originally as a violinist and viola player before falling in love with Hindustani music and its many histories, from the medieval courts of northern India to Bollywood today. A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic and Royal Historical Societies, and a recipient of major grants from the European Research Council and the British Academy, Professor Schofield draws on Persian, Hindi, English and visual sources to tell stories about musical lives in early modern and colonial India.
Her latest book, Music and Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, 1748–1858, was described as a “masterpiece” by William Dalrymple and was one of three finalists for the 2025 Association of American Publishers Prose Award. It has also been awarded the 2025 Otto Kinkeldey Award by the American Musicological Society for “a musicological book of exceptional merit published by a scholar who is past the early stages of their career.”
