For Rohan Dasika, the double bass has always inspired him to look inward.
“The biggest thing for me [about playing] is that feeling of disappearing for a split second; every now and then you get a moment where you forget you exist…your sense of self almost dissolves,” he says.
It’s not an unusual viewpoint for the player of an unpretentious instrument, most commonly enhancing music from the back of the room.
“[The bass] comes into its own playing with other instruments, so I guess the sort of person that wants to play that instrument may also be the sort of person who’s a bit less self-centred and interested in other people,” Dasika reflects.
Rohan Dasika is already an outlier as one of a handful of South Asians involved in Australia’s Western classical music scene; now, he’s one of the only people in the world experimenting with Carnatic music on the double bass.
But the role of a pioneer is not one he ever aspired for.
“It’s never been about doing something new, so much as trying to become closer to myself in a way,” Dasika clarifies.
Dasika grew up in a musical household and first picked up the double bass during high school.
“I was the person trying to play in as many different bands as possible, and have as many different instruments going,” he recalls. “There were times where I’d be trying to cram onto the school bus carrying a trombone and a bass guitar and my school bag!”
“I remember learning quite early on that I was attracted to the low notes… I saw some bass players who looked like they were having a great time and that was something that I wanted to be a part of.”
Dasika started to entertain the idea of playing professionally after joining the Melbourne Youth Orchestra, leading him to study at the ANU’s School of Music. Since 2022, he’s been the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Acting Assistant Principal Double Bassist, which he describes as his “dream job”.
“No week’s the same – you might go from playing Harry Potter or Star Wars [soundtracks], to playing with Sigur Ros, then go into a Shostakovich Symphony the next week – it keeps you on your toes,” Dasika says.
As the only South Asian musician with the MSO however, he is aware of the difficulties in pursuing a musical career and the resources required.
“On one level, I have a similar background to anyone else that’s come into the orchestra, in the sense that my mum’s a music teacher and I had all the resources [that] unfortunately you [currently] need to go into classical music,” Dasika acknowledges.
“On the other hand, when I’m playing for an audience with Indian people in it or I’m seeing Indian or other multicultural musicians on stage, I feel a bit less alone. I can’t speak to their experience, but I imagine most musicians on the stage aren’t feeling that most of the time as they’re seeing a lot of people that look like them; you realise ‘that’s something I’m missing.’”
Classical music institutions have long been criticised for excluding those from lower socio-economic and non-white backgrounds, confronted now with the need to modernise and diversify both their audience and membership. Equally, the financial pressures of a subscription-based model have left orchestras in a precarious position when navigating social issues or programming.
However, despite recent controversies, the MSO has made efforts to diversify through collaborations with popular bands and international musicians and initiatives like ‘MSO at the Movies’.
“There’s a growing awareness if you want to reach different communities, you can’t expect them to come to you,” Dasika says.
“In the past there’s been this idea that you ‘do your thing’ and if people appreciate it, they’ll come and watch you. Across all sorts of arts there’s a sense now you need to put in some work yourself and offer something of value to the people that you’re trying to reach as well.”
Within this landscape and his own musical journey, Rohan Dasika felt a yearning to reconnect with his South Indian heritage.
Receiving the Freedman Classical Fellowship in 2019, he commissioned Australian Carnatic composers Sandy Evans and Adrian Sherriff to write two pieces for the double bass, ‘Layamani Misra Khanda’ and ‘Marupiravi’ (Tamil for ‘reincarnation’).
Thus began Dasika’s own reincarnation too, making his first trip to India to immerse himself in Chennai’s Music Season, and connecting with other local Carnatic musicians like Bharavi Raman and Nanthesh Sivarajah.
He is currently a student of Chennai-based violinist VS Narasimhan, where he delights in the challenge of realising Carnatic melody and rhythm on a non-traditional instrument.
“The [bass range] doesn’t exist traditionally in Carnatic music; it’s such a perfect sound as it is. It becomes this creative challenge of what you can add to those sounds without destroying the essence of it,” Dasika observes.
“I love embracing the inherent character of the instrument. I’m not super interested in trying to make the bass sound like a violin.”
He views 2022’s ‘Reincarnations’, where he performed the commissioned pieces for the first time, as the ‘spark’ in a lifelong musical journey – which has since seen him, within the MSO, play a free summer concert at the Sydney Myer Music Bowl with Sangam, and collaborate with Deepa Mani and Sheena Chundee on the score for TOUCH.
“[Reincarnations] was a high point, like I’ve touched some sort of connection to this music,” he reflects. “That’s the journey, isn’t it? You keep discovering how little you know and then trying to get closer and then it keeps getting out of reach again.” Rohan Dasika
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