Engagement with the Arts is encouraged as an integral part of Buddhism in our community. Finding artistic forms that speak to us as Western Buddhists is a major part of this engagement. What would the Dharma chanted by Western Buddhists need to sound like to speak to us as Buddhists and Westerners? With this in mind a Composers’ Competition was staged in November 2011 in Cambridge, UK.
Arthasiddhi, who envisaged and organised the competition, sent out a call to composers in Triratna to set verses from the Dhammapada to music for an unaccompanied untrained choir. Five settings of the verses simple enough for this purpose were submitted by Akashadeva, Emma Choporian, Yashodaka, Vipulakirti and Graham Patterson.
The choir learned and performed each piece, and the audience voted for a winning composition, which was then sung by the whole community celebrating Sangha Day. A cash prize was awarded to the piece best liked by the Cambridge sangha audience.
We are planning another competition this year. If you’d like to support the project you can make a contribution to this year’s prize by transferring money to the CBC account details as follows;
Triratna Cambridge, Sort Code: 08-92-99 (co-op bank) Account Number: 65307159
nb: please state what it's for when sending the money, or it will not go towards the competition