Nathaniel Mander is a member of the ASaiL Collective, a group of 3 keyboardists and 3 vocalists. Its musicians were appointed in autumn 2024 to deliver a 6-concert series at the Handel Hendrix House for the 24-month AHRC project Abolition Song and its Legacies (Principal Investigator, Berta Joncus). Drawing on the project’s compilation of rare primary source materials, performances of the ASaiL Collective alternate world premieres of British anti-slavery song (1787-1830) with readings from Black 18th-century anti-slavery activists and period music in Britain by Black composers, or featuring African or Caribbean practices. The ASaiL Collective ends its concerts by inviting audiences to share reactions to the programme in a moderated discussion. Through collaborative preparation, which sometimes generates radical arrangements of music and text, the ASaiL Collective transmits and interprets lost voices of historical composers and writers, particularly those either Black or female (white women having been very active in the Abolitionist movement).The authorial diversity of the ASaiL Collective’s sources is mirrored in its artists and practices.

Nathaniel Mander is not only a renowned harpsichordist, but also a composer who integrates his own pieces into his solo historical concerts. Prize-winning British-American soprano Shafali Jalota advocates in writing for artists who, like her, are of mixed heritage. Daniel Lee Chappell is a keyboardist and composer from Salford, whose works and teaching engage with local communities. El Rashid is a song-writer and producer as well as a classical soprano; her music combines jazz, western classical, electronica, and alternative pop. As one of few non-white professional countertenors, Biraj Barkakaty devotes time, despite his international commitments, to promoting lost voices; apart from the ASaiL Collective, he is as member of El Parnaso Hyspano. Yihan Zhua’s harpsichord performances often introduce many of his audience members to the instrument, for which he also boldly adapts 20th-century and contemporary compositions.

The Asail Collective’s mission is to illuminate Black histories in Britain’s musical past and acknowledge the responses provoked by historical testimony about the transatlantic slave trade. The Collective sees its music and post-concert discussions as in part addressing the pain and social dysfunction that remain today a legacy of this abhorrent trade.

Nathaniel Mander, harpsichordist https://www.nathanielmander.com/
Shafali Jalota, singer https://shafalijalota.com/
Daniel Lee Chappell, keyboardist and composer https://cohancollective.com/artists/daniel-lee-chappell/
El Rashid, soprano, song-writer and producer https://elrashidmusic.com/index.html
Biraj Barkakaty, countertenor https://www.birajbarkakaty.com/
Yihan Zhao, pianist and harpsichordist, Royal College of Music MA programme