Duration: 20:00  – 30:00

Serendipity is a raga for Indian violin, tabla and string quartet, composed in 2015 and dedicated to Indian violinist Lenneke van Staalen, tabla player Heiko Dijker and the Matangi String Quartet. The world premiere took place on December 26 2015 at the Maartenskerk in Doorn, the Netherlands. Serendipity means “a fortunate happenstance” or “pleasant surprise”. It was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to a friend, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made by reference to a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip. Those princes were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”. The name stems from Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
The string quartet part was composed in such a way that it leave plenty of room for improvisation for both Indian violin and tabla.

Recording by Dutch radio 4: