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Asian Music Circle
The Asian Music Circle (sometimes abbreviated to AMC) was an organisation founded in London, England, in 1946, that promoted Indian and other Asian styles of music, dance and culture in the West. The AMC is credited with having facilitated the assimilation of the Indian subcontinent's artistic traditions into mainstream British culture. Founded by Indian writer and former political activist Ayana Angadi and his English wife, Patricia Fell-Clarke, a painter and later a novelist, the organisation was run from their family home in the north London suburb of Finchley.
In the 1950s, with Yehudi Menuhin as its president, the AMC organised the first Western performances by Indian classical musicians Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, as well as Vilayat Khan's debut concerts in Britain. During the following decade, the Angadis introduced George Harrison of the Beatles to Shankar, initiating an association that saw Indian music reach its peak in international popularity over 1966–68. The Music Circle had its own London-based musicians, some of whom played on Harrison's Indian-style compositions for the Beatles, including "Within You Without You" from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The AMC is recognised as having introduced yoga into Britain, through the Angadis' hosting of classes by visiting guru B.K.S. Iyengar. The organisation had ceased operation by 1970, when Ayana and Patricia Angadi separated.
Asian Music Circle co-founder Ayana Deva Angadi came to London from Bombay, India, in 1924, to gain the qualifications necessary for a top position in the Indian Civil Service, under what was then British imperial rule. Instead, he embraced Trotskyist political philosophy and became an outspoken critic of British imperialism. During the 1930s and 1940s, Angadi wrote journal articles (often as Raj Hansa) and gave public and school lectures throughout the UK; having joined the Labour Party, he discovered that his views were too extreme for the party's more moderate sensibilities. Angadi's 1942 treatise Japan's Kampf impressed Britain's wartime Ministry of Information, but following the war, the authorities suspected him of being an agent for Soviet Russia's Cominform bureau.
Late in 1939, Angadi met Patricia Fell-Clarke at a social event held at London's Dorchester Hotel. The daughter of a wealthy English industrialist, Patricia had similarly rejected societal norms, finding her identity as a portrait painter. Despite strong objections from her family and peers, the couple were married on Labour Day 1943. Patricia would draw inspiration from this disapproval during her later career as a successful novelist, beginning with 1985's The Governess.
The Angadis lived on the top floor of the Fell-Clarke family residence, in the north London suburb of Hampstead, before Patricia's inheritance allowed them to purchase their own home, a large house at 116 Fitzalan Road, Finchley. She and her husband founded the Asian Music Circle (AMC) in 1946, with the aim of promoting Asian arts and culture in Britain. With the Fitzalan Road property as their headquarters, the couple went on to organise music recitals, dance performances and cultural lectures throughout the West.
Visiting performers often stayed with the family, which had grown to include four children by 1949. The third of these was Darien Angadi, later a choral soloist and an actor in Shakespearean productions by Trevor Nunn, Jonathan Miller and Herbert Wise. In his book Azaadi!: Stories and Histories of the Indian Subcontinent After Independence, author and journalist Reginald Massey writes that all the Angadi children were "brilliant and beautiful", with the youngest, Chandrika (or Clare), becoming the first Asian model to appear in Vogue magazine.
The Asian Music Circle's activities increased during the 1950s, such that some sources give 1953 or the mid-decade period as the date of its founding. Patricia was appointed chairperson of the Hampstead Artists Council in 1953, and among her portrait subjects were Labour MP Fenner Brockway and the American classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Another notable connection was Benjamin Britten, the English classical composer, who served as the AMC's vice-president. That same year, the AMC announced that its mission was to "[foster] the appreciation and study of the Music and Dances of all Asian countries, thereby creating greater understanding of Asian peoples and cultures".
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Asian Music Circle
The Asian Music Circle (sometimes abbreviated to AMC) was an organisation founded in London, England, in 1946, that promoted Indian and other Asian styles of music, dance and culture in the West. The AMC is credited with having facilitated the assimilation of the Indian subcontinent's artistic traditions into mainstream British culture. Founded by Indian writer and former political activist Ayana Angadi and his English wife, Patricia Fell-Clarke, a painter and later a novelist, the organisation was run from their family home in the north London suburb of Finchley.
In the 1950s, with Yehudi Menuhin as its president, the AMC organised the first Western performances by Indian classical musicians Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, as well as Vilayat Khan's debut concerts in Britain. During the following decade, the Angadis introduced George Harrison of the Beatles to Shankar, initiating an association that saw Indian music reach its peak in international popularity over 1966–68. The Music Circle had its own London-based musicians, some of whom played on Harrison's Indian-style compositions for the Beatles, including "Within You Without You" from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The AMC is recognised as having introduced yoga into Britain, through the Angadis' hosting of classes by visiting guru B.K.S. Iyengar. The organisation had ceased operation by 1970, when Ayana and Patricia Angadi separated.
Asian Music Circle co-founder Ayana Deva Angadi came to London from Bombay, India, in 1924, to gain the qualifications necessary for a top position in the Indian Civil Service, under what was then British imperial rule. Instead, he embraced Trotskyist political philosophy and became an outspoken critic of British imperialism. During the 1930s and 1940s, Angadi wrote journal articles (often as Raj Hansa) and gave public and school lectures throughout the UK; having joined the Labour Party, he discovered that his views were too extreme for the party's more moderate sensibilities. Angadi's 1942 treatise Japan's Kampf impressed Britain's wartime Ministry of Information, but following the war, the authorities suspected him of being an agent for Soviet Russia's Cominform bureau.
Late in 1939, Angadi met Patricia Fell-Clarke at a social event held at London's Dorchester Hotel. The daughter of a wealthy English industrialist, Patricia had similarly rejected societal norms, finding her identity as a portrait painter. Despite strong objections from her family and peers, the couple were married on Labour Day 1943. Patricia would draw inspiration from this disapproval during her later career as a successful novelist, beginning with 1985's The Governess.
The Angadis lived on the top floor of the Fell-Clarke family residence, in the north London suburb of Hampstead, before Patricia's inheritance allowed them to purchase their own home, a large house at 116 Fitzalan Road, Finchley. She and her husband founded the Asian Music Circle (AMC) in 1946, with the aim of promoting Asian arts and culture in Britain. With the Fitzalan Road property as their headquarters, the couple went on to organise music recitals, dance performances and cultural lectures throughout the West.
Visiting performers often stayed with the family, which had grown to include four children by 1949. The third of these was Darien Angadi, later a choral soloist and an actor in Shakespearean productions by Trevor Nunn, Jonathan Miller and Herbert Wise. In his book Azaadi!: Stories and Histories of the Indian Subcontinent After Independence, author and journalist Reginald Massey writes that all the Angadi children were "brilliant and beautiful", with the youngest, Chandrika (or Clare), becoming the first Asian model to appear in Vogue magazine.
The Asian Music Circle's activities increased during the 1950s, such that some sources give 1953 or the mid-decade period as the date of its founding. Patricia was appointed chairperson of the Hampstead Artists Council in 1953, and among her portrait subjects were Labour MP Fenner Brockway and the American classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. Another notable connection was Benjamin Britten, the English classical composer, who served as the AMC's vice-president. That same year, the AMC announced that its mission was to "[foster] the appreciation and study of the Music and Dances of all Asian countries, thereby creating greater understanding of Asian peoples and cultures".