FERUS Festival 2018
BISHI
“The Good Immigrant”,
a song cycle about race and identity
Tickets
About the Show
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The annual FERUS Festival is a showcase of untamed voices. The world’s most innovative artists perform their newest work: in music, multimedia, and beyond.
To kick off this year’s FERUS Festival, the British-Bengali vocalist/composer Bishi premieres “The Good Immigrant,” a song cycle for voice looper, sitar, and electronics, co-produced with composer and sound designer Jeff Cook.
A revolutionary artist who plays the sitar like the electric guitar, Bishi brings her colorful multicultural background to her work. Inspired by the eponymous collection of UK essays about race and identity, edited by Nikesh Shukla, “The Good Immigrant” is a powerful exploration of issues that have defined Bishi’s own life—identity, questioning cultural belonging, and exploring the dichotomy of being caught between worlds, as an alienating yet energizing space.
photo credit: Zuzanna Butkiewicz
Bishi’s residency is supported in part by the Virginia B. Toulmin foundation.
About the Artists
Bishi
Singer, multi instrumentalist & DJ, Bishi was born in Earls Court to a Bengali musical family; her mother is an EMI signed artist to this day. She has studied Sitar at The Ravi Shankar School for Music and has a passion for English & East European folk, progressive pop & electronica. Her album ‘Nights at The Circus’ has been critically acclaimed and she has been nominated for this year’s South Bank Show Awards – the ‘Times Breakthrough Award’. Fusing British pop with her folk influences and ruminations of urban life she says: “I have based the album on being an outsider. The space between two cultures can be confusing, but it can also be very energetic.”
