Live Performance By British Singer Milli Moonstone at ...

Milli Moonstone is a Western girl with an Eastern heart. She is a sarangi player, a flutist and a singer who hails from Britain. Deeply influenced by Indian music, she plays a brand of fusion that is deeply inspiring. She has been on tour in India with Pakistani pop star Najam Sheraz, with whom she sings and plays Violin, Flute, Sarangi and Guitar. She gave up her medical degree to study Asian and African music where she had the incredible opportunity to learn instruments and vocal styles from all around the world. But the instrument that truly stole her heart was India’s sarangi. Milli Moonstone’s musical life began properly at 7 years old, when she started studying classical flute, and singing in the Hampshire County Childrens’ Choir. A year later she took up the violin and joined local and county orchestras, and wind and string ensembles. At 11, she hit headlines and caused a national controversy by applying to be a girl chorister in Winchester Cathedral (under her birth name, Emily Edmondstone). For over 900 years, the choir had consisted only of boys, so she confronted head-on a long-established tradition. She was the centre of another wave of press years later when she eventually won her fight and the first girls’ choir was pioneered in the Cathedral. In the meantime, Milli had continued to study classical voice, flute and violin, was singing in the National Children’s Choir, and had started writing her own songs on the keyboard since the age of 13. She joined Westminster School at 15, where A Level Music opened her eyes and understanding of various genres further- from classical to jazz to musicals. After A levels, Milli left her instruments behind and set off alone on a voyage of discovery around the world. Not to be without music for long, she bought a cheap guitar in Indonesia and immediately started writing songs on it. This culturally-enlightening trip inspired a deep-seated interest in musical styles from a plethora of places. Milli also has a creative input in all sorts of other musical ...