Rolf Killius

Consultancy & Services in South Asian Arts

Rolf Killius is a consultant (museums, exhibitions and media), exhibition curator, ethnomusicoligist (MMus SOAS, London University), sound recordist, film producer & editor and radio journalist whose work appears in a variety of contexts. He works in exhibition curating, academic research, music and sound production, film production editing,  and the delivery of music and arts events especially related to the India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Career Biography
            
Rolf Killius, a German-born British resident, has lived in Germany, Switzerland and India and presently divides his time between London, UK and India.

At present Rolf works as a consultant for the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), 'the first truly global musical instrument museum' in Phoenix, Arizona (USA) where he is responsible for collection, research and documentation in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Recently he co-curated the exhibitions:

          Indian Strings & Dances at the Museum of Croydon, London (April - August 2009)

          Utsavam - Music from India at the Horniman Museum,  London (february - November 2008)

          British Library Sound Archive, Music from India (from April 2009) (provided text and music)  

Rolf facilitated the documentation and construction of a Bhunga dessert farm, from the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, Western India on the premises of the anthropological Grassi Museum in Leipzig, Germany.

For more than ten years Rolf has been a regular producer and writer of radio broadcasts and articles about Indian, Romanian and Arabic music for different Swiss, German and UK radio stations and publications. He has also recorded, produced and mastered seven CDs in the UK, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands and written the book Ritual Music and Hindu Rituals of Kerala, which was published by BR Rhythms in Delhi 2006.

In 1996/7 he spent 18 months in Kerala and parts of Northeast India, where he recorded and documented numerous ritual and folk music traditions. Since 1996 he has worked with the British Library Sound Archive on a project - TMI (Traditional Music in India) - to record, document and research folk, devotional and ritual music in India. Part of this project is to collect and document more than 100 musical instruments for the Horniman Museum in London.


Work Ethics

Rolf has chosen to adopt a participatory approach in all areas of his work. He tries to conduct his work in a way which is fair, inclusive and sensitive to the aims and objectives of his partners. All projects he works on should be beneficial in one or several ways to communities in South Asia. Sustainable elements should be included and if possible a legacy project set up. He subscribes to the Code of Ethics  as developed by the Museums Association of the UK.


Contact Rolf:  rolfkillius 'at' yahoo.com