rather than being born into a culture and almost becoming a victim of it one could choose ones culture or cultures and integrate one’s perception of them into one’s own creativity. both in time and in space one could travel around our world absorbing the best that different cultures and epochs have to offer us and making this, if appropriate, our own voice. i came to see music as one language with countless different dialects when viewed both internationally and inter-temporally any of which could be incorporated into one’s own self-expression if the subject matter of what one wished to express so necessitated it. (‘preface’ to ‘six baroque suites’, 2006)

Surendran recorded two solo CDs in Johannesburg, Ready, Steady, Go! (1994) and Rough’n Reddy (1996), wonderfully illustrate his  crossover style, one of the conventions of which (as with playing Chopin) is maintaining a steady beat in the left hand “while the right hand moves rhapsodically, and with possibilities of rubato, above it” (‘Composer’s Note’).