Malayali sisters Arunitha & Aanya Mohan to perform at Playground Music Festival, Germany:'We're looking forward to collaborating across two entirely different styles of music'

Arunitha Mohan and Aanya Mohan, young musicians and sisters from Thiruvananthapuram, are all set to perform at the renowned Playground Music Festival organised by the musical band Playfords e.V. in Weimar, Germany, on Friday. The duo is currently in Germany, preparing for their performance.

Speaking to us, Arunitha and Aanya share, “We are filled with immense gratitude and honoured to receive this opportunity — it’s truly a dream come true to perform alongside The Playfords at the Playground Festival. We're looking forward to introducing our instruments, the veena and violin, and to collaborating across two entirely different styles of music — our classical Carnatic music from South India with early Renaissance music from Europe.”

“Our concert is on the first day (November 7) of the Playground Festival, which will be held at the Mon Ami Concert Hall in Goetheplatz, Weimar,” says Aanya.

The siblings love exploring different genres of music, which, in their words, “brought us to this early Baroque music”.

Speaking about their performance, Arunitha explains, “We will be performing a Thillana in Dhanashree Raga, a classical composition by Swathi Thirunal, while The Playfords improvise with early folk music in the Baroque style in between. The instruments they play include the recorder, viola da gamba, lute, ghanjira, and shakers.”

Aanya, the violinist among the two, elaborates, “We are also incorporating our style of violin playing with Carnatic gamakas and finger techniques in gliding notes, which is very unique and quite different from the Baroque style of violin playing.”

When asked about their time in Germany so far, the duo says, “We are really enjoying Germany. Weimar is a calm and cosy place with about 50,000 people, and it’s deeply dedicated to music, with many music schools and universities.” Fascinated by the city, Aanya recalls, “Weimar is the birthplace of Goethe and Schiller. We even visited the Goethe Museum, where we saw his birthplace and the park where he played in as a child.”

Arunitha adds, “We are also playing songs composed by The Playfords. One of the songs describes the four seasons of Europe, where the ornamentation and structure of the composition are really beautiful. After our concert, we’ll be travelling to other states in Germany, like Berlin and Dresden, to explore more of the country.”