June 1, 2008 Mumbai, India
Dear Friends of ORKA-M,

The ORKA-M Institute and Gallery is now launched! Please read below to watch a documentary on Rajesh Mehta’s pioneering work. This is of interest to arts enthusiasts and serious investors in the ORKA-M vision. Please read on!

ORKA-M: International Institute of Innovative Music (Mumbai) is an international platform for innovative musical production, research and educational activities with a specific focus on intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborations. ORKA-M will ultimately be a state-of-the-art physical facility with an Art Gallery, Performance Space, and sound and media lab.

ORKA-M in the media
South African Broadcasting Corporation SABC 3 showed a program on April 20, 2008 featuring innovative trumpeter, composer, engineer Rajesh Mehta and his music-artwork! Please click here to view the video on our website, and visit our videos page and youtube channel for more!

More media news:
· internetTV report on ORKA-M, Mumbai and Rajesh Mehta on Spiegel ONLINE
· “Forces of Nature” – Interview with Rajesh Mehta by Dutch Filmmakers Ruben Taneja and Jan Willem Peters

Current ORKA-M projects
Belgian dancer/choreographer Filip van Huffel will work virtually from London/Antwerp with Rajesh Mehta on his graphical notation framework which he will interpret choreographically. Please see blog updates on Filip’s dance company Retina Dance’s website.

Upcoming international events & news

• BOOK RELEASE AND CONCERT IN NYC Rajesh Mehta’s music-artwork (Songlines’ Jewels) and his essay on Innovative Musical Notation will now be released late August 2008 in an Anthology of 21st Century Musical Notation entitled Notations 21 (hard cover, Mark Batty Publishers/Thames and Hudson) by Theresa Sauer and can be pre-ordered on www.amazon.com. Trio ORKA-M featuring Cellist Rohan de Saram, South indian percussionist Jayachandra Rao and Mehta on Hybrid and Slide Trumpets will play in a book release concert series on Oct. 11, 2008 at the Chelsea Art Museum in NYC.
• TEACHING AT THE NORWEGIAN THEATRE ACADEMY Mehta has been invited to teach for October 14-24, 2008 by Architect/ Stage Designer Serge von Arx (who has been working regularly with Theatre-Director Robert Wilson) and who heads the Scenography department
• MUSIC-ARCHITECTURE SYMPOSIUM AT LA TOURETTE; FRANCE Members of Mehta’s music-architecture project “sounding buildings” team (including his longtime artistic partner and co-founder of orka-m Barbara Friederichsen-Mehta) have been invited to the Période Musicale 2008, co-organized by the CCMIX (Centre création musicale from the late contemporary music composer Iannis Xenakis) and the Centre Culturel de Rencontredu Couvent de La Tourette (made by Architect Le Corbusier) This year’s “Période Musicale” will conclude with an international symposium/debate on the theme “Music – Architecture”. The symposium/debate will take place between November 5–7, 2008 and will conclude with a musical weekend running from the evening of November 7 through the afternoon of November 9, 2008.
• RELEASE OF NEW FICTION Berlin-based American writer Cecile Rossant has just released an exciting new novel “Tokyo Bay Traffic” on RedHen press. Mehta and Rossant were sounding boards for each other’s work during Mehta’s tenure in Berlin between 1999-2005. Cecile helped shape the concept of Mehta’s music-architecture project “sounding buildings” while Mehta critically read Tokyo Bay Traffic as it developed into a novel. Please follow this link for more info.

An early Monsoon has arrived and the rains are a relief. Greetings from a very wet Mumbai!
your ORKA-M Team.

for further queries and appointments please contact orka.muse@gmail.com

visit ORKA-M at:

Why is Rajesh Mehta and ORKA-M in India?
Rajesh Mehta’s roots lie here. India is a vast country of opposites, infused with cultural diversity in a dynamic state of change, which along with the country’s rapid economic growth provides an opportune place for Mehta’s longstanding vision of an innovative music institute. The fundamental changes which are affecting the country and are certainly having their impact in the shaping of the entire world, are reflected in the ORKA-M's microcosm and are being transformed into music and arts.
Read Rajesh Mehta’s Biography on the ORKA-M website.

How can I participate? Rajesh Mehta’s art prints/musical scores, which visualize the Institute’s core idea of an interplay of arts, music, culture, architecture, technology and film are now available through our online shop. By purchasing one of the prints, you directly support the development of ORKA-M.

Please see the shop on our site for details. Personal appointments to visit our Juhu, Mumbai Gallery where the entire collection of original works as well as the prints are currently being exhibited can be made by contacting ORKA-M’s co-founder Barbara Friederichsen-Mehta at orka.muse@gmail.com