July 30, 2026 – Park Theater – from 7:00 pm

GANAVYA | LAURA MISCH | SATHNAM SANGHERA | “WATERWAYS RE:IMAGINED”

“Waterways Re:Imagined” brings together distinctive artistic positions between global music, sound art, contemporary composition and alternative pop. As part of the festival theme “Waterways – Canals, Sea Routes, Empire”, the evening focuses on waterways as spaces of movement, exchange and memory. Canals, rivers and sea routes appear not only as geographical lines, but also as historical and ecological infrastructures along which goods, people, sounds and stories circulate. With Ganavya, Laura Misch, Sathnam Sanghera and the Water & Sound Ensemble, a program is created that combines musical, literary and historical perspectives in a haunting way.

Laura Misch is a British musician, producer and sound researcher whose work moves between electronica, sound art and alternative pop. Using saxophone, voice, synthesizers and field recordings, she develops her own, finely crafted sound language in which atmosphere, rhythm and precise observation come together. For “Waterways Re:Imagined”, she uses recordings of rivers and canals to create fascinating songs and dense live moments. In this way, water landscapes, urban environments and ecological fragility are not only documented in her music, but artistically reimagined and made tangible in a new way.

Ganavya is one of the most remarkable voices on the current global music scene. The singer, composer and bandleader grew up between the USA and Tamil Nadu and trained in South Indian classical music, especially Carnatic singing. From there she developed a distinctive musical language that combines Indian tradition, improvisation and contemporary soundscapes. Her improvisational practice is deeply rooted in Carnatic forms, while jazz influences primarily shape the ensemble sound and harmonic structure of her music. In the context of “Waterways”, water becomes Ganavya’s image of memory, home, movement and spiritual connection.

The evening will begin with a discussion with the British author and journalist Sathnam Sanghera, moderated by Jenny Langner. Sanghera, born in Wolverhampton to Punjabi parents, is one of the most influential voices in the British debate on colonial history and its aftermath. In his books “Empireland” and “Empireworld”, he combines personal family history with global historical analysis and shows how imperial trade routes, migration and colonial infrastructures continue to shape societies, landscapes and self-images to this day. In conversation, he focuses on waterways as routes of expansion, exploitation, movement and exchange.

The Water & Sound Ensemble with Aleksandra Manic (violin) and Verena Foutsop (viola) from the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Preetha Narayanan (violin) and Tara Franks (cello) from the London duo Balladeste will open the evening with their own musical accent and then enter into a dialog with Laura Misch. Under the direction and with arrangements by Tom Jahn, connections are created between string quartet sound, improvisation, neoclassical colors and experimental pop, which musically frame and continue the evening. Further encounters with the artistic positions of the evening remain possible.

18:30 Admission | 19:00 Q&A with Sathnam Sanghera | 20:15 Laura Misch | 21:45 Ganavya

The conversation with Sathnam Sanghera will be held in English.

Supported by the Bavarian Cultural Fund of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts.

GUIDED TO THE WORLD HERITAGE – 16:30 – 18:30: Water and World Heritage on the Singold. Through Göggingen along the Singold and the factory canal.

Photo Ganavya top left: Carlos Cruz | Photo Laura Misch top right: El Hardwick