Musicians

Nishtha (Siegfried) Mueller is a long-term Aurovilian, Sanskrit teacher, Veda researcher, and passionate life-long learner. For more than forty years he has devoted himself to Sri Aurobindo’s The Secret of the Veda and Hymns to the Mystic Fire, to the study and restoration of some of the ancient hymns and to sharing a living approach to Sanskrit with spiritual seekers.

Auroville Today: What was your childhood like, how did your own musical journey begin? Shalini: My journey with music began very young. Singing was always central to my life, but never through formal education.

The women’s choir Auroville Harmonies performed a “Singing the World” concert at CRIPA on 2nd and 3rd March, conducted by Antoine. Ceramic artist Supriya Menon Meneghetti presented an exhibition titled “From Darkness to Light” at Centre d’Art, Citadines 8-23 March.

This year’s AUM (Auroville Underground Music) Festival, organised by Youth Center, YouthLink and Svaram on March 16 and 17, featured two days of live music and performances by artists from in and around Auroville.

On May 23rd, Jules Arindam passed away at the age of 50 in JIPMER hospital where he had been taken some days earlier. Jules was born in Pondicherry in 1972 to Dawn (daughter of Dietra) and AuroArindam, who was one of the initiative takers of Auroville International.

Heinrich Karl Weihrauch peacefully passed away in his Auromodèle home on Wednesday December 25th at the age of 81. He had suffered a number of strokes since 2010.

What struck me most about Krishna Kumar was his intensity: in dance, as singer in his band Temple Rock, and as a teacher of dance and Carnatic music.

Paul Israel Berdah, better known as Paulo of Tanto, left his body at the age of 71 on December 2nd in a hospital in Paris where he had been treated for a cancer from which he suffered since early 2017.

One of the highlights of the Auroville Festival in Chennai was the sound of Chandra’s haunting flute which concluded the inauguration. But such mastery does not come easily.