The Score | Beyond Borders

Mumbai, India was the site of a remarkable debut this April: ­“Chiragh: A Concert Beyond Borders,” the first concert by a new orchestra whose musicians come from countries including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India, led by American conductor Viswa Subbaraman. The orchestra’s name, Chiragh, means “a little flame that lights the darkness, and it is a metaphor for our quest and passion for peace in our divided region,” says co-founder Nirupama Rao, the former Foreign Secretary of India. The April 26 concert at Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts came just five days after hundreds were killed in church and hotel bombings in Sri Lanka. The concert opened with Maithreem Bhajata, a Sanskrit invocation, arranged for orchestra. There were two commissioned works: Hamsafar: A Journey through South Asia, by the Afghan National Institute of Music’s Lauren Braithwaite (commissioned by the Eric Daniel Helms New Music Program, of Classical Movements), and Indian-American composer and instrumentalist Kamala Sankaram’s Bhadke, as well as Western repertoire.