Online Desk: Popular Bangladeshi singer, songwriter, composer, communication specialist and entrepreneur and country’s popular band Chirkutt leader Sharmin Sultana Sumi has been invited to an international music conference in Norway.

Initiated by the University of Agder, Kristiansand in Norway, the conference, titled Kristiansand Roundtable Conference (KRC), is scheduled to take place from November 1 to 10 – in which Sumi will join three sessions.

These three sessions are ‘Scientific Conference – Strategy and Sustainability in Music Business’ (November 3), ‘Role of Women in BD Music Industry’ (November 7-8) and ‘Student Event – Music for Climate’ on November 9-10.

In these sessions, Sumi will speak, present and exchange viewpoints with the student-teachers while also talking about her journey as a pioneering female artist in the Bangladeshi music scene.

“After working with Bangla songs on a regular basis for the past 21 years in Bangladesh and the last 11 years internationally, people all over the globe want to hear from me and us about our music – and I believe this is an enormous shift and a huge opportunity for us,” Sumi said regarding this invitation.

“The world is much bigger than we think and there is a wide range of work opportunities for all of us. Taking advantage of that opportunity and speaking on the world’s stage for your country is a matter of peace, honour and pride for me as an artist,” she added.

When asked about her plans for the sessions, she said, “I will try to share my experience of working in the music industry for a long time as an artist and a female artist, to be specific – which I think may inspire many. Also, the talking points will be about the music of Bangladesh, the collective journey of our band and our ‘Nodi Rocks’ project which I conducted from the place of responsibility of an artist on the issue of the negative impact of climate change.”

The aforementioned ‘Nodi Rocks’ project began in February 2022 and focused on seven rivers across the country: the Kushiyara, Padma, Sangu, Chitra, Pashur, Dahuk, and Buriganga, with a mission to aware people of climate change and its impacts on these rivers in the riverine Bangladesh.

Seven music videos were made on these seven rivers by these seven bands: Arbovirus performed on Padma river, Smooches on Chitra, Cryptic Fate on Kushiyara, F Minor on Dahuk, Bangla Five on Pashur, Ashes on Buriganga and Sangu was featured by Chirkutt.

These videos gained popularity on social media platforms while the songs became fan-favorites and the project also brought up an exclusive concert in September last year. The project was the brainchild of Sumi, Chirkutt’s founding member-vocalist and Founder-CEO-Creative Director of Salt Creatives.