The ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC) announces the launch of India Music Week (IMW). In collaboration with Columbia Libraries at Columbia University, and with the support of Founding Partners Gracenote, Incredible Labs, and the Internet Archive, ARC will lead an online project to celebrate Indian music and culture during India Music Week, Oct 7 -13, 2013. In 2011 ARC launched the first “World Music Day” celebrating Islamic music and culture (please see: www.muslimworldmusicday.com). This online site was accessed by more than two million people worldwide on the initial date and still gets over 2,000 visitors daily. The project was awarded the prestigious “Innovative Use of Archives Award” by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York. Building on this success ARC next created Brazilian Music Day in 2012. Again millions of fans and music industry people visited this massive research site, www.brazilianmusicday.org while the ARC acquired and catalogued more than 20,000 Brazilian recordings. Building on this success ARC will expand a “Day” into a full India Music “Week.” IMW will be an online website to present, promote and explore the rich cultural heritage of Indian music of the past, present and future. IMW will offer videos, histories, seminars, concerts, lectures, sound files, sheet music, broadcasts, narrowcasts, album cover art galleries, essays, blogs, photos and links all highlighting the importance and beauty of Indian music as well as educate a global audience about it’s many genres and facets. Building on our collection of more than 5,000 relevant recordings ARC, with the help of Gracenote, has already catalogued 25,000 Asian Indian recordings issued domestically and from around the world during IMW. This database will be one of the largest online reference tools on the web, freely available to all. The project director for India Music Week is ARC Director B. George. Mr. George lived for a year in India in 1970, and spent Oct 2012 there where he gave a talk at the IASA Convention in New Delhi. Project assistants are Dr. Brian Q. Silver and Laura Kilty. Dr. Silver taught at Harvard, 1974-83, and was later Ethnomusicologist and World Music Curator at Voice of America, Washington, DC. He is a scholar of, and performs, North Indian music. Laura Kilty is a PhD student in composition at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. Looking ahead, future ‘Weeks’ will exploring the music and culture of Scandinavia (2014), Cuba (2015), Louisiana (2016), China (2017) and… The ARC is actively seeking Project Sponsorship worldwide and a Partnership with a cultural institution in India. ARC invites organizations and individuals interested in supporting and participating in the project.
India Music Week – Oct. 7 – 13, 2013
About the ARC : Now in 28th year, the ARChive of Contemporary Music is the largest collection of popular music in the world, with more than two million popular music recordings. It is supported by a Board of Advisors comprised of leading musicians, songwriters and directors, including David Bowie, Jellybean Benitez, Jonathan Demme, Michael Feinstein, Youssou N’Dour, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, Nile Rodgers, Todd Rundgren, Fred Schneider, Martin Scorsese, Paul Simon and Mike Stoller.
