MUMBAI: One often recognizes Stuttgart Germany when one hears the names of world renowned companies or products such as Mercedes, Porsche, Bosch, etc. Though very few people are aware that, Stuttgart is also known for its highly innovative art and a vibrant immigrant community.

To celebrate 50 years of the sister-city relationship between Stuttgart and Mumbai, a delegation from Stuttgart led by the lord mayor of Stuttgart himself will be arriving on the 31 of January in Mumbai.

Part of this delegation is Orchester der Kulturen Founder artistic director Adrian Werum, a unique Stuttgart based orchestra who are acknowledged internationally for composing music. That too in a format that it unites various cultures and countries by bringing together different traditional instruments, as well as musicians and artists from various corners of the world.

As part of his trip to Mumbai, Werum will meet traditional as well as classical Indian musicians and singers to discuss ideas on collaboration. Mr Werum hopes that he will be able to organise an Indian tour as well as a German tour for such a collaborative effort.

This effort is also a part of an ongoing collaboration of Mr. Werum and Music2Deal. Music2Deal is a Hamburg headquartered company with representations in over 20 countries across the world including India. In India, Music2Deal has been making inroads under the active leadership of Sudhir Shreedharan.

Shreedharan says, “We in India need to leverage soft power such as cultural collaborations which have a huge potential to bring together countries for a common geo-political purpose. I think a lot of Indian states with their diverse cultural backgrounds would also benefit from such an effort. Werum has a very powerful theme called ‘The Spirit Of One’ which unites people of different religions, caste or creed. The ‘Spirit Of One’ is also blessed to have benevolent sponsors. At a time when Germany and India are exploring reinvigorated business ties with each other, cultural collaborations and unity of thought will go a long way to enhance the efforts of the governments on both sides”

“ Music2Deal has always encouraged cultural collaborations between various countries and will currently support any such collaborations between India and Germany with our online platform, publicity, mentorship, curation, access to funding, etc. Although I live overseas now, I am born and raised as an Indian on a heavy diet of Indian Bollywood as well as traditional music. I do feel a lot for the Indian traditional/classical music community whose efforts usually fail to get appropriately monetised these days,” adds Shreedharan.

Shreedharan says, “Young Indian classical / traditional artists and musicians today lack the opportunities to showcase themselves internationally. Hence Adrian and Music2Deal have made it our personal priority to convince stakeholders across both the countries to enable such collaborations for the benefit of Indian traditional / classical labels, musicians as well as artists seeking to collaborate with German artists to showcase themselves to an international audience, adds Shreedharan."

Germany is the land of innovation and this applies to music and other forms of art as well. Sudhir says, “Innovative cultural collaboration projects between the two countries will not only build stronger diplomatic as well as trade relations between India and Germany but they also have the potential to become a strong export oriented revenue stream for the Indian and German art and music community. We in India need to focus on making the music business an export focussed business. Other than a handful of the popular classical Indian musicians who travel the world for their performances, the entire spectrum of the younger classical music aspirants lack international monetising opportunities as well as the required domestic support or infrastructure.”

“This is despite all the social media and tools they possess. If India continues to look the other way, traditional/classical Indian music will die a slow death. Hence I personally think that the government needs to consider this as a serious business opportunity. Music2Deal in India is considering to work closely with the central and state governments in India to draw up a blueprint which will nurture classical Indian music collaboration opportunities with Germany. That which will eventually evolve into music exports for the benefit of both countries. Werum who has strong relations to the Jewish community (because of his affiliation to Park Avenue Synagogue in New York as their composer in residence) is also keen to meet Jewish communities in India to understand how well they have adapted themselves to the Indian culture. The Jewish community in India has always strongly supported India even though they have been affected by tragedies in the past, adds Sudhir."

Mr Werum says, “ I have been personally very impressed with Prime Minister Mr Modi who has been so gracious to go out of the way to build bridges with countries such as Germany, Japan and Israel amongst others. It's always a delight to watch leaders bind themselves into cultural efforts before political or financial motives. I have always applauded Mr Modi's effort but a lot needs to still be done on the front of Indo-German cultural relationships. I would also like to request to the young Indian leaders such as Rahul Gandhi and Milind Deora to support our Cultural Collaboration efforts to enhance the relationship that several states in India already enjoy with Germany. I would also like to take this opportunity to request to the Indian music and arts community to encourage cultural collaborations amongst both Germany and India at the highest level.

Our partners in India Music2Deal, will be in touch with the respective government offices as well as non profits to explore the nitty gritty of this dialogue on the ground.”