ON THE HORIZON reinforces the Central Bank’s commitment to the enhancement and support of the performing arts locally. This represents yet another initiative of the Bank where we explore the skills and talents of our many upcoming or unknown performing artistes. Here we provide an insight into their education, performances, dreams and mentors.
The management of the Central Bank Auditorium offers its performing space free of charge to these artists, thereby opening the doors to their career as entertainers. We begin the series with Sitar player SHARDA PATASAR.
Photos by: GHANSHYAM Photography
Sharda Patasar has been a professional musician since 1996 and a freelance writer since 2014. She attended high schools both in India and Trinidad, where she pursued her training in classical sitar in addition to her regular secular subjects. In 1998, she achieved her BA in English Literature at the University of the West Indies and a PhD. in Cultural Studies in 2013 at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, where she was awarded a scholarship for doctoral work based on her musicianship and research in the field.
Though trained in North Indian Classical music, her main interest and work have been in experimental and fusion music, some of which include:
2020: “The Lightbox: Sight and Sound”:
Sharda Patasar and Celine Sampson
Artistic interpretation of sound, an original composition entitled “Dreaming”. Initially created for a Ramleela theatrical performance, celebrating the annual re-enactment of the Hindu epic ‘The Ramayana’, composed for the dream sequence.
2014: “Douen Islands”:
Poetry and music collaboration with poet Andre Bagoo,
The soundtrack, “In Forest and Wild Skies” utilised the body of the sitar from the creaking of pegs to the strumming parts of the strings that are never played.
UK 2009: “Odyssey”:
An experimental fusion album.
Musicians: Tom Donald (piano), Mark Buckingham (bass clarinet).
Track: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Sharda also composed music for local films, one of which include “Coolie Pink and Green” which received the People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival (2009), it also opened the Pravasi Film Festival New Delhi (2010).
Working in film as co-director/co-producer, Sharda‘s most recent works for which she composed the original musical score were:
“Travelling Palms” (2022)
Director, Musical Director/Composer
A film based on the Warao Tribe’s migration to Trinidad, created on behalf of The Living Water Community.
“Ganga Dhaara” (2020)
Co-Director, Co-Producer, Music Composer
An examination of the way in which sacred spaces are reconstructed within the Indo-Trinidadian diaspora. This film examines how and why the Hindu Ganga Dharra festival in Trinidad came to be based on accounts from the key founders and participants. Includes interviews with leaders of the Orisha faith, as both Indo and Afro-Trinidadians have found common ground in water festivals.
