In artistic pursuits such as music, how original is original, and where and how do inspirations come along? Exploring this interesting subject, 29-year-old pianist Chelsea de Souza has put together a lecture cum recital called The Silk Road: A Tale of Musical Trade between East and West, which will be performed in Mumbai early next week as part of a multi-city tour of India.

“As part of my doctorate, and also one of the areas I have been researching about and am interested in for the last few years, was how music is influenced by cultures and how people use it to express their identity. Typically, we don’t think of these cultural interactions much when it comes to Western Classical music because it’s an abstract art form. But when you unravel what inspired composers to compose their music, and what music they encountered, you realise that there have been a lot of cultural interactions across the world,” says de Souza.