Chat with Mr. Warren Senders

Gauri: Our guest today at The Foundations Tv is Mr. Warren Senders who is an internationally recognized vocalist, composer and performer who has studied and rendered Hindustani music for over 30 years. The leader of the indo-jazz ensemble Anti-Gravity, Senders is a member of the New England Conservatory faculty and a Learning Through Music specialist who applies a rich background in Indian, African, and Western music toward cross-cultural aspects of learning through music programs in public elementary schools. Mr. Senders has studied Hindustani vocal music since 1977 and has been performing professionally in India, Europe and America since 1991.

He considers his music journey began with the absorption of sounds that he heard even before he learnt how to speak. As a child, listening to Mozart being played in their home, singing Gilbert and Sullivan, to being impressioned by a guy who would occasionally walk up and down the suburban street playing Scottish tunes on his highland pipes, all ‘musical childhood exposures’ contributed to impacting his musical instinct which has now developed to a level that inspires so many around him. His first ineffective guitar lessons, or his short-lived associations with a garage band, or even his 4^th grade teacher telling him that he can’t sing, did not stop him from singing informally at summer camps. He slowly developed a liking for jazz music and fell in love with freedom of it. He believes that this exposure early on helps him take chances with music, in using his imagination and creativity. His next love was Hindustani classical music.  After learning for eight years in Boston under Smt. Kalpana Mazumder, he traveled to India hoping to become a disciple of the renowned Bhimsen Joshi. But despite his love for Joshi’s singing, Senders was dissatisfied, and continued his search for a teacher who would be able to  give him one-on-one lessons to satisfy his passion for learning Hindustani classical music. Once under the supervision of Pandit Shreeram Devasthali, his life took off as a Hindustani classical musician. Of course this involved devoting each and every minute of his life being spent, living and breathing his passion which is music. Staying true to his passion all along, and now decades later, he has numerous writings and recordings to his credit. He is a master mind for various unique musical concerts in the area for the last two years. Each concert focusses on a different aspect of music – voice, percussion, bowed strings, and plucked strings, to name a few. The common theme in all of these being “Playing for the Planet” . And The Foundations TV is honored today to have Mr. Warren Sanders here with us to talk about these concerts.

Gauri: Welcome to The Foundations TV. It’s a pleasure to have you here with us today. We would first like to begin with your association with the environmental causes

Warren: Thank you for having me here Gauri. I am a musician. I am a composer and my association with environmentalism really emerged at the time when my daughter was born in 2005. Watching the news of climate change gradually began to dominate my time. I began thinking about my daughter’s future and I realized that as a musician, I am part of a long human tradition that goes back hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps even to times before there were human beings. We’ve always sung, we’ve always danced. So, to be a musician, and to be as I am a music teacher, means that we are part of a tradition that stretches back to an unimaginably distant past, and if we don’t stretch forward into an unimaginably distant future, then the meaning of our work is diminished. This made me think that musicians needed to be in the forefront in the fight against climate change. This is what lead me to produce the series of benefit concerts and we now have one coming up in June.

Gauri: This is such a beautiful concept. Mr. Senders is doing fantastic work bringing music talent together for environmentalism through the “Playing for the planet” concerts. And that’s what I would like to hear about. How are your concerts helping the planet?
Warren: In 2009, I was involved with environmental blogging on a progressive daily quote website, and I asked one of the other members of that community, what I could do since I was not a climate scientist and he directed me to a website called 350.org. This is run by the environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben, for whom I have enormous respect. The number 350 in ppm denotes the maximum allowable level of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As the climatologist James Hansen said, “Consistent with maintaining our planet in which our civilization evolved, to which all life on this earth is adapted”. We are now at 400 ppm and it’s climbing. That’s not good. The first ‘Playing for the planet concert took place on the ‘International day of climate action’ on October 24^th, 2009 and featured 6 different artists. I was one of them singing Indian classical music. The point of these concerts has always been, that we get artists that represent different world traditions and put them on the same stage, one after the other in order to demonstrate that the climate crisis is something that goes above national and cultural boundaries. As far as the climate is concerned, it does not matter whether you are Indian, or African, or American, or Canadian or you’re from Papua New Guinea, or Australia, or Germany. It does not matter. It is a common home and all human music which represents the same strand of unbroken tradition that goes back into that unimaginably distant past. I also found that my colleagues in the music world were very receptive to this. Once they understood the concept, I began getting calls from people, ”you know, I’d really like to be part of this,” because musicians are aware of the need to invest in the future. By teaching music, by performing, we hope to give inspiration to people, to let people know some of the things that we see and love in this world, and for us to contribute to environmental causes, then makes perfect sense, in the long term arc of our professions, of our livelihoods and our living. So, the concert that we have upcoming, is the first dance event. It is called “Dancing for the Planet”. It includes a contemporary American group , the Zoe Dance Company, the West African dance virtuosity of Nani Agbeli with the Agbekor drum and dance ensemble, and the extraordinary narrative theater of Aparna Sindhoor, the Navarasa Dance Theater. This will be in Boston on the 21^st of June. I hope that we will see you all there.

Gauri: Thank you so much. I think what I heard very clearly, is that music has no boundaries at all, and neither does this cause that you are playing for, which is our planet. Such a noble cause this is. For each one of us, this is our home and we all have a duty towards contributing to the betterment of it. The way you are doing it Warren, is extremely inspiring. You are bringing together all sorts of talents and amazing artists from around the world cultures to perform for the planet and raise funds for a cause that affects each one of us.

Gauri: We would love to hear more about your past concerts. We understand that has been a common theme which is playing for the planet, but each of the concerts I’m sure has been unique in it’s own way. So, we’d love to hear a little bit about each of them and more about this one coming up on June 21^st.Warren: Thank you. Well the first event that we put on was in a church in Cambridge, MA. It featured 6 artists, which was a little rich even for my blood. We had a Middle Eastern and Eastern European violinist, an African Drum ensemble, an Indian dance group, a classical Indian singer, that’s me, Japanese classical music for koto and shakuhachi as well as a group of women vocalists representing mostly Eastern European and Middle Eastern traditions. Subsequent concerts have included all vocal music including Indian classical music, Latin jazz, and contemporary jazz. We’ve done a concert called ‘Drumming for the Planet’ which featured a jazz master named Bob Moses playing drum set solo, along with a table solo and an African drum ensemble. We’ve had violins again climate change with Tara Bagalore and Mimi Rabson, a great jazz violinist and Beth Cohen, the Middle Eastern violinist. We’ve had ‘Strings Against Climate Change’ with the veena virtuosity of Durga Krishnan, the Turkish classical music of Mehmet Sanlikol  and extraordinary classical guitar duet by the great masters Eliot Fisk and Zaira Meneses. In the spring of 2012, we had ‘Flutes Against Climate Change’ featuring Japanese classical Shakuhachi flute and an Indian classical Bansuri virtuoso Steve Gorn and an extraordinary group of Renaissance musicians featuring some of the most incredible recorder playings. Around the fall of 2012, there were other things that were occupying our attention, so we chose not to put on a concert right around the election. In spring of 2013, we had another vocal music concert planned that was scheduled for April 19^th in Boston, when the lockdown happened due to the security situation. So that concert unfortunately was cancelled. That would’ve been concert # 7. However, I’d already booked the hall and arranged for the dancers to be dancing for the planet for June 21^st. So that is going to be number 7. Right now I have no idea what we will plan for the fall, but I am going to be booking the dates before summer and lining up musicians and we’re going to keep on presenting these concerts as long as we can, because people are still interested in joining. The more different kinds of music and the more different kinds of dance, or perhaps, as I used to have a lot of association with the storytelling community here in New England, so who knows we may be I’ll put together something for ‘Stories for the Planet’ as well. This is the kind of thing, the more people get involved, the more people start to understand what we have at stake and the fight against climate change. It’s not just a question of losing a few of our creature comforts, it’s a question of retaining the integrity, the meaning and the beauty of all that human beings have accomplished over these many thousands of years. One of the things that we’ve accomplished is this extraordinary heritage of music, dance and other expressive art forms. These really represent the highest accomplishments of human beings that we can come together in aesthetic unity and communion in shared our efforts of being part of something larger than ourselves. So this is really bigger than any one culture or any one tradition. I would encourage anyone who is listening and is interested to get involved in it in many different ways. Probably, the first thing that you can do is to educate yourself. Spend  some time following up on the news of climate change and go a little bit beyond what you get on television. There is a great deal of vested financial interest in downplaying the severity of the crisis because,, well, corporations that own our media have also heavily invested in fossil fuels. Educate yourself and find an area where you can feel comfortable expressing your own activism. If you love music, put up house concerts, invite people over, and collect the donations, find an environmental organization who’s principles you respect, that’s participating in the fight against climate change and help them out. Get involved. For myself, in addition to my daily life at work as a musician and as a music teacher, I write on the subject. Since January, 1^st, 2010, I’ve written a daily letter to the editor. It has been 1400 consecutive days of writing letters to the editor to newspapers and magazines all over the world. I’ve been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Time magazine, USA Today and in papers all over the place. And I don’t say that I am doing any one great thing, but the only way that this is going to be addressed is by 7 Billion of us doing small things. And in my life as a musician, this is something that informs every song that I sing, every student that I teach, anything that I write, or think or express about the musical traditions that I have been fortunate and honored enough to learn and study. If we don’t address this, none of that has any meaning, but I personally would like my life to have some meaning. How about you?

Gauri: That is such a significant message coming from such a renowned and inspiring person. If you have ever met him in your life, that’s certainly a privilege. I feel very privileged sitting next to you today and listening to all the meaningful thoughts that you shared with our audiences. Yes, each one of us is a human being playing multiple roles in our lives, being a mom or a dad, a friend and so many other relationships that we are managing in our lives. But then amongst all of these responsibilities, there is also something that we as an individual believe in. We find a cause, we believe in it and we merge our talents to benefit ourselves while we develop our talent, but more importantly using our talents towards something that we believe in. That itself is such a huge inspiration to see you living your life in such an exemplary manner, for everybody who is listening to this interview. You also laid out clearly what people can be doing if they want to do something about this particular cause or if they would like to get involved with a concert such as yours.  As we wrap up this interview, is there something else you would like to say to our listeners?

Warren: Pay Attention. Pay attention to one another. Be kind to one another. In the coming centuries, we’re going to need all the help we can get. We do have a chance to turn our story from the saddest story ever told to the greatest story ever told. It is only by working together we can do that. Music is important. I am not naïve. I don’t believe that music will save the world. People have sung going off to war. People have sung as they have slaughtered innocence. There is nothing intrinsically holy about music, but I do stand with great American folk musician Pete Seeger, “Music won’t save the world, but we’re not going to save the world, if we can’t learn to sing together”

Gauri: Thank you so much for being here today and thanks a lot for saying such lovely lines. I’m sure that each one of us listening today would benefit from it and take some valuable message from this inspiring interview. Thank you.