SPOTLIGHT ON... Anita Datta – British-Asian Conductor, Composer, Organist and Soprano

Picture credit Vivienne Sarky

Anita, what inspired you to start learning the organ, and what support and guidance did you receive?

Aged 14, I was thrown onto the Hammond drawbar organ at my mum’s church when another organist failed to show up one day. Mum’s church didn’t have a resident organist or choral tradition, so I was ignorant of Anglican church music culture and other opportunities until a local vicar helped me gain lessons through an RSCM scholarship scheme.

A chance remark overheard at a universities conference prompted me to research Oxbridge organ scholarships, and Sarah MacDonald encouraged me to attend an Open Day and the RCO ‘The Organ Student Experience’ (TOSE) course. There were only four girls on the course amongst some sixty lads, and scarcely any Northerners. Ultimately I won the organ scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, where I received immense support from David Skinner, which I needed as I’d never previously attended an evensong except on the TOSE course!

I would have been much more nervous had I known at the time what I later came to understand about the training and preparation my competitors at organ trials had received from a young age. I realise how my arrival as a professional musician, or as an organist at all, is due to a series of accidents, and often wonder how many more able and interested people are out there who lack similar opportunities?

At what stage did you decide to make music your career?

Simply, I couldn’t find a way to shape my life without placing music at the centre. When I was younger, I desperately wanted to find a job that would allow me to make music full- time, but my father dissuaded me, expressing concern that I wouldn’t be able to make a stable living from music. For immigrant families, security is paramount, so I gradually gave up on the idea. I didn’t know any professional musicians; I didn’t know that you could be a conductor, freelance musician, composer etc. or what that would entail. It’s hard to imagine being something you do not know exists!

Even though my first job after Cambridge was Director of Music at St Marys, Woodford, I viewed music as an extra or ‘side’ career for a long time. Gradually, though, music delivered most of my income. Alice Farnham on the RPS Women Conductors scheme urged me to take myself seriously as a conductor, but the real turning point for me came during a Royal Opera House Women Conductors workshop during lockdown. Jessica Cottis observed that my distinctive life experiences and polymathic approach meant that certain aspects of conductor’s role came naturally to me. I was stunned into tears by this, because I had previously experienced my differences as a stumbling block entry into the professional music world. Several colleagues offered friendship and encouragement after the class and Jess continued to be essential in the development of my sense of self, purpose, and confidence as a professional musician. Her support led me to the conducting programme at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which I completed in 2023.

Balancing so many fields at a professional level - conducting, composing, playing and singing - seems impossible! How does it work?

It works well for my hyperactive brain! Honestly though, rather than seeing things as a balancing act between fields, I understand all my performing, research, consulting, and governance work to be united around the furthering of inclusivity in high-level creative arts practice. I relish the plurality of creative outlets that the polymathic scope of my portfolio offers.

Tell us about your recent and current initiatives.

I have recently taken up the role of Organ Tutor at Chetham’s, and it’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to support young people build their relationship with the instrument and its repertoire. In my own practice the most significant recent event has been the commission of my raga-inspired organ symphony, Ādi, by the South Asian Contemporary Classical arts organisation Zeroclassikal. It was premiered last March and performed on the Isle of Man and at Howden Minster in East Yorkshire. More widely, I enjoyed conducting a Diwali programme with Social London Orchestra last month, and I’m looking forward to working on the development of a new immersive production with Hull Urban Opera through November 2025. As Founder-Director of The Swan Consort, I am currently fundraising for a disc and tour which will be integrated with schools workshops, and our programme will feature birdsong-inspired madrigals, from Janequin to the present.

(Editor’s note: please see https://www.societyofwomenorganists.co.uk/events for details of forthcoming performances of Anita’s works)

Clearly your Asian heritage has proved influential in your work …

Yes! – as creatives, our work is always an expression of ourselves. For a long time, I shut off or suppressed that part of myself in Western Classical contexts. It was only when respected colleagues encouraged me to bring distinctively Indian forms and techniques to the keyboard that I began to express myself in that way. I’m still unlearning the habits of self-suppression and self-censorship that are often part of the experience of minoritisation in a society that is not always as welcoming, safe, and inclusive as we might wish.

How do you think your gender or race have influenced your professional opportunities, either positively or negatively?

It is absolutely apparent to me that all parts of my intersectional identity (gender, race, family class background, neurodivergence) have shaped my professional opportunities and experiences at every turn. I would encourage people to conceptualise intersectionality like a meshwork, with each protected characteristic adding another layer of density to a mesh in which people may get stuck.

I have more frequently found that my class-background, queerness, neurodivergent characteristics, or the colour of my skin have been the point at which I have experienced harm, rather than my gender. I believe, however, that being a woman I am even more vulnerable to these differences being noticed and found disruptive or challenging by people within the dominant social culture. I’ve experienced a wide range of verbal abuse and structural discrimination that has quite evidently affected my career progression. Treating colleagues’ experiences of discrimination as shocking exceptions can shield the listener from deeper receptiveness to uncomfortable realities, and from the idea that they might not even be aware of their own privileges. This is a barrier to meaningful contemplation about how things might change, and how we all might contribute to a more just and inclusive society.

What more can we all do to increase justice and inclusivity in the musical world?

Learning about ourselves and the ways in which we fit (or not) into systems of power, opportunity, and social exchange are essential before we take on the considerable responsibility of learning about the experiences of others. To learn more about racial justice, I recommend reading:

• The Good Immigrant (ed. Arunava Sinha)

• So You Want To Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo

• Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor and/or Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera. These explore how Britain continues to benefit from its colonial legacies in India

Anita, thank you for such a thought-provoking interview, and best wishes with your many activities.