Virtuoso table player Kuljit Bhamra has been appointed the artistic director at spnm – a membership organisation founded in 1943 to promote and launch new music. In particular it aims to find the best of the next generation of composers and has launched the careers of many of the UK’s leading composers.

Bhamra, who has recorded over two thousand songs to date, is a self-taught composer, producer and tabla player. He worked on the film scores of
Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it like Beckham, Alexander the Great, The Guru, A Little Princess, Wings of a Dove, The Four Feathers, Brick Lane and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In 2002, he joined forces with Andrew Lloyd Webber for the West End musical Bombay Dreams and he spent the next two years appearing as an on-stage percussionist.

He also acted as Indian Music Consultant and wrote music for the musical adaptation of The Far Pavilions, and in 2005 re-worked the Bee Gee’s popular seventies hit Staying Alive, which became the first instrumental to top the Sunrise Radio people’s chart. spnm will celebrate the announcement with a party and live performance by Kuljit Bhamra on Thursday February 21st from 6pm at the trendy lounge bar Piya Piya, London.
[Media contact: Mary Rahman for after-party.]

Jenny Goodwin, Chair of spnm, said: “spnm is thrilled to welcome Kuljit Bhamra as Artistic Director for 2008-9. This is a particularly important collaboration for spnm because it provides the opportunity to broaden the types of music with which we are engaged and it will help us reach new audiences. It will also open up a whole new world of opportunities for our composers.”

Kuljit Bhamra said: “One of my missions during the spnm season is to de-mystify music from non-western traditions. Through a programme of composer workshops and performances, I intend to create opportunities and dialogues whereby performers and composers work together to break down such glass walls, and for this process to open similar doors to other cultures and music.”