MI. 29.7.2026 – Dominican Church – 9:30 p.m.

BALLADESTE

UK

Balladeste is a London-based string duo featuring the Indian-American violinist Preetha Narayanan and the British cellist Tara Franks. Both are classically trained and have been working together for more than ten years on their own musical language between contemporary classical, folk, Indian classical, baroque and minimalism. Narayanan studied violin and piano in the USA and South Indian classical music in Chennai; Franks works as a cellist, composer and director of collaborative music projects. Balladeste can be experienced in the former Dominican church of St. Magdalena as part of the exhibition “THE TEA CHARIOT”, where her playing, the reverberant acoustics of the church space and the festival theme “Waterways – Canals, Sea Routes, Empire” come together. Their pieces emerge from jointly developed musical lines, improvisation and the interplay between violin and cello.

Photo above: Rebecca Cleal