KENT ARTIST PROFILE :
WILL DUTTA
THE VISIONARY , CREATIVE , MUSICAL INNOVATOR AND NAME SAKE BEHIND STUDIO WILL DUTTA , HAS BEEN MAKING WAVES IN THE WORLD OF CLASSICAL MUSIC SINCE THE CONCEPTION OF THE STUDIO IN 2007 . NOW , OVER THIRTEEN YEARS LATER , THE STUDIO HAS PRODUCED WORLD RENOWNED WORKS OF ART , PRESENTED OVER 200 PERFORMANCES AND COLLABORATED WITH SOME OF THE MOST TALENTED ARTISTS OF THE 21ST CENTURY . insideKENT GRABBED A MOMENT TO TALK TO WILL ABOUT WHY HE LOVES KENT , WHERE THE INSPIRATION FOR THE STUDIO CAME FROM , AND WHAT IS NEXT FROM HIS HAVEN OF MUSICAL CREATIVITY .
© Michael R Williams
What was the inspiration behind opening Studio Will Dutta ? I want the studio to be a parade of artistic invention , playback and research . My creative impetus comes from the piano . But I originally set up the organisation , Chimera Productions as it was known then , to deliver my first creative production back in 2007 . For the years after , I was bouncing between the roles of creative producer , composer and concert pianist without a really clear thread . By 2017 I had worked out how to make it more focussed though and started to put things out under the studio .
Tell us a little more about the studio ... I call it my creative everything because the work I make and produce is so varied . I believe in cultivating the imagination ( both the audience ’ s and mine ) to learn about the world . For example , The 20 / 19 Project explored the transformational shift in culture over the last 100 years through the lens of music and in particular , the viola .
Who is the most exciting artist to have worked with / at the studio ? My most surreal encounter was with actor Hugh Grant . He was the narrator in our concert production of The Little Prince , by Nick Lloyd-Webber and James D . Reid , at the Abu Dhabi Festival . I found myself giving him direction , which I have to say he received very graciously !
What made you choose Kent as the home of Studio Will Dutta ? My wife grew up in East Kent and her family are still here . Since living here , I have become increasingly interested in the possibilities of focussing my artistic work in a very specific area of Kent and embedding it into the work produced .
What would you consider the studio ’ s greatest achievement ? I ’ m particularly proud of the Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra , which is probably my only truly original idea ! This piece has been performed over 70 times around the world , twice at the BBC Proms , and numerous broadcasts on BBC Radio 1 , XFM and others . The fact that we managed to get orchestral music played on these stations at that time really proved how the best new music can transcend even the Beeb ’ s rigorous genre distinctions !
How have you dealt with the COVID-19 crisis , and how is the studio planning to evolve over the next few months to meet new demands and restrictions ? Fortunately , I was able to draw on a reasonable archive of work and remaster it for digital . We also commissioned an audio-visual coda to The 20 / 19 Project , “ Time Stands Still ”, thanks to a grant from Arts
Council ’ s Emergency Response Fund . We plan to present more blended events in the coming year where exclusive access will be available to a socially distancing audience and we ’ ll use our latest experiments in broadcasting to share online .
What can audiences look forward to from the studio in 2021 ? In the first part of 2021 , we will share the latest research and development of our most ambitious production to date , pleasure gardens . While the multidisciplinary production itself , which uses motion capture , artificial intelligence and big data analytical technologies , should hopefully land in 2022 .
studiowilldutta . art
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