Rajesh Mehta’s entire music-artworks oeuvre (2001-2012)
is now online on the orka-m Collectrium site. Pls check it out! http://orka-m.collectrium.com/
Entire Music-Artworks collection online: Collectrium
July 19th, 2012orka-m naga phoenix trumpet featured at music instrument museum, phoenix,arizona!
July 19th, 2012Exhibition of instruments from Singapore in the music instrument museum, phoenix Rajesh Mehta peforms on the orka-m naga phoenix microtonal trumpet innovation with south indian temple musicians in the video. Trumpet made with trumpetmaker George Schlub.
music instrument museum, phoenix, arizona
MIT Scratch surprise (featuring the naga phoenix microtonal trumpet)
February 1st, 2012“Hi fellow scratchers, my sister(10) and I(15) made this video as a surprise for our dad who played the music you just heard 
He plays a microtonal trumpet and went to MIT..”
click on the image below to see the trick film!
Sounding Buildings in the Leonardo Music Journal 21, MIT Press
February 1st, 2012Hi folks, the Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press) is out with my contribution to the theme “Beyond Notation” See the essay and music excerpted from my music-architecture DVD project sounding buildings: inaugurating MIT’s Simmons Hall with the building’s American Architect Steven Holl. Includes audio material with Barbara Friederichsen-Mehta on voice, Rohan de Saram on cello, Ray Raymond A. Kaczynski on percussion and myself on Hybrid and slide trumpets.
see the following link for details
orka-m trum-pet show Jan. 2012
January 30th, 2012
A show of hybrid trumpet innovations in Singapore on Jan. 26, 2012 by musician and founder-director of orka-m Rajesh K. Mehta
www.orka-m.com
innovative music meetings with the orka-m naga phoenix: two south indian temples in two days!
October 21st, 2011![2011-10-19 10.58.40[1]](http://www.orka-m.com/institute/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2011-10-19-10.58.401-150x150.jpg)
First week with new instrument!: Rajesh Mehta took his brand new microtonal trumpet innovation made in collaboration with trumpet maker George Schlub the Orka-m Naga Phoenix into two Singaporean South Indian temples this past week. Special thanks to my family (daughters lena and vinya and wife barbara) for the entire audio/video production, the heads of both temples for giving us the permission, and to these master temple musicians themselves for allowing such an unusual innovative music meeting to take place within the temples.
First meeting and live improvisation with temple musicians from the Thendayuthapani Temple, Singapore on October 20, 2011
K.R. Selvam on the double reed instrument the Nagaswaram, and S. Arumoham on the Thavil (drum).
First meeting and live improvisation with temple musicians with temple musicians from the Sri Ruthra Kaliamman temple, Singapore on October 19, 2011:
The orka-m NAGA PHOENIX comes home!
October 11th, 2011
the ORKA-M Phoenix, a new microtonal trumpet innovation
October 5th, 2011Notes by Rajesh Mehta:
14 years ago while living in Amsterdam I imagined a microtonal slide trumpet that could do the job of playing innovative music inspired by my longstanding relationship to south indian temple and classical music (carnatic music) and even approached a dutch instrument maker with some ideas but neither the time nor the place (and perhaps not the person in me) was ripe for such a challenge and consequently I settled on buying the Maynard Ferguson Firebird from Mueller, Amsterdam, playing and recording with it in various contexts.
But since my Senior Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship in Chennai in 2005-2006 given to me by the American Institute of Indian Studies, and under the guidance of my dear friend the great carnatic vocalist Aruna Sairam I embarked on deeper interactions with south indian temple musicians working intensively with them as a part of my research. These were the musicians that John Coltrane listened to on record, and I had the great fortune of spending quality time with them in person. This changed my hearing, my imagination, my life.
The ORKA-M NAGA PHOENIX TRUMPETis born in collaboration with the adventurous spirit and good hands of trumpet maker George Schlub: Once the testing is finished and the infrastructure for the Phoenix is in place via ORKA-M Pte. Ltd., Singapore, we plan on taking orders. A video of the Phoenix in a professional context will come out in the near future.
orka-m incorporated as a private limited company in singapore!
September 22nd, 2011orka-m’s incorporation as a private limited company in singapore on sept. 19, 2011 is a major step towards creating the entrepreneurial infrastructure for the realization of orka-m’s vision for a permanent international institute of innovative music in asia-pacific. The websites on orka-m.com will be revamped over the next months in order to reflect orka-m’s new company status. Please bear with us as we integrate these changes into the site architecture.
ORKA-M Manifesto, July 2011, Singapore
July 22nd, 2011
energy of musicality
Manifesto
We invite individuals and communities to live “musically”, an opportunity to harness the affirmative energy of musicality inherent in living a life full of consonances and dissonances but nevertheless as an ensemble striving for a harmonic result.
We believe that the energy of musicality catalyzes the forces that bring creative communities into being. orka-m fulfills the need for an enduring institution in which an ongoing global dialogue finds its symbolic expression through the power of music.
orka-m promotes mutual understanding through hands on projects.
Manifestation
orka-m is an initiative that is creating a worldwide platform for innovative musical practices: we have applied our vision of innovative music to music-architecture (sounding buildings), music-artworks ( imaginational maps and songlines jewels) and music-jewelry (singing jewelry). The 3 pillars of orka-m are production, education, research: education and research are integrated in the development of practical methodologies and tools towards the creation of world class innovative music productions.
orka-m works with an innovative business model that is based on maximum self sufficiency. orka-m has already produced music-artworks, prototypes for a music jewelry line, and will continue to produce merchandise creating a self-financing ecosystem. Other than our present focus on establishing the institute of innovative music, orka-m is the brand name for a group of companies that will range from innovative instrument design and manufacturing, furniture and new building designs, to innovative problem solving consultancy services.
Manifesting
orka-m is in the process of establishing its international headquarters in Singapore and will have a series of India, Singapore and Asia-Pacific launch activities in 2011-2012. orka-m will have exhibition-events with concerts, performances, lectures and demonstrations. It will also start the project “sounding building Bali”, and is presently looking for a site in Bali, Indonesia on which to make a prototype of a hybrid home-institute. This will be an opportunity to experiment with orka-m’s architectural ideas, especially with finding the balance between living and creating, private life and public life etc. The entire process will be documented on film and the final prototype will be presented to potential clients.
orka-m implements “green” thinking in its various manifestations by operating ecologically and cultivating a sense of shared responsibility with respect to our environment, searching for a host site to build a campus that uses green energy, emphasizing resourcefulness and embracing locally grown and produced materials as well. We believe that in order to have a true relationship to the host country we must partner with local talent so that a relationship to the cultural heritage of a place is established.