Strings Through Time

A graduate in lute studies at the Vicenza Conservatory in Italy, Luca Chiavinato has also dedicated himself to the study of Middle Eastern music, in particular the Oud, which he has studied with the great Palestinian master Adel Salameh. He has held concerts as a soloist, with ensemble and orchestras around the world and is a co-founding member of the New Landscapes quartet. Luca is a lute and guitar instructor at the Accademia di Musica Antica of the Centro di Educazione Musicale L.V. Beethoven at the Liceo Scientifico (High School) E. Fermi in Padua, Italy.

Since 2017 he has worked primarily in Iraq, having conceived and developed an Artist in Residence project there in collaboration with the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per and the Ya-Basta Caminantes Association. As part of this project, Chiavinato co-founded the Mshakht Ensemble, a performance and recording group that brings together about 170 young musicians from diverse regions and ethnic communities within Iraq, including Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Kaka’i, Shabak, Christians, and Syrian refugees.

He is also co-founder and program director of the Iraqi NGO Walking Arts – Art, Culture and Heritage, which promotes human rights through the medium of artistic languages.

Madhuri Jagadeesh is a singer songwriter and co-founder of MoonArra. She has a Masters in World Literature. Madhuri’s vocals have been influenced from all over the world, but rooted in India. She began singing in school operatas and small musical productions since she was eight years old. She’s also been singing professionally since she was eighteen. Madhuri has always loved the open sound of jazz and finds it the most inclusive form of music and a universal mode of communication. Madhuri has found a niche in world music and is constantly looking to expand the scope and possibilities of this genre with new influences and sounds from around the world as she travels.

She has also been in the field of training, learning and development as a consultant and has conducted developmental programmes in corporates, corporations, organisations and institutions. She has an understanding of Indian Classical and Western Classical Music and uses both in her exploration of jazz and world music.

Jagadeesh Ramanujam Mudambi is a self taught guitar player, composer and founder of MoonArra. Jagadeesh is an experienced guitarist performing with pop, rock, jazz and fusion ensembles for three decades. From a young age, Jagadeesh was exposed to Indian Classical sounds as well as Western Classical music at home. Playing both nylon classical guitar and electric steel string guitar, Jagadeesh, with his band MoonArra, besides collaborating for a long time with Dr. Prakash Sontakke & Karthik Mani, has also performed with Malaysia based drummer Lewis Pragasam and Asiabeat, Indonesian drummer Gilang Ramadhan, amongst others.

His interest in flamenco music led him to Spain where he spent a month studying under Juan Maria Paul in Sevilla. Jagadeesh also developed an interest in playing the Oud after a trip to Cairo, Egypt. As Head of Events at Radio Indigo (till 2008) Jagadeesh conceptualised a number of concert events, reviving and putting together – The Indigo & Blues Festival in 2007 – and in 2009 a three day jazz festival for the Bengaluru Habba. Jagadeesh is also the Director of the Bangalore School of Music, heading the Jazz & Contemporary music Dept., Music Relations, concerts, events, programming, etc.