News
Symphony Orchestra of India marks UK debut in February 2019 with six-concert tour, including Russian romantic showpieces and Zakir Hussain’s Peshkar India’s growing appetite for Western classical music has led many to forecast a coming age of rich cultural exchange and vigorous creative dialogue. The Symphony Orchestra of
Music Education
Among the British Library’s extraordinary collection of materials relating to the history of Indian music in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries lie dozens of European accounts of the nautch—intimate musical parties at which troupes of high-status North Indian courtesans would sing, dance, recite poetry, and match wits
Interviews
Subha Das Mollick’s ‘Calcutta Sonata’ looks at how the piano became an integral part of the cultural fabric of Calcutta. “Nobody remembers when the first piano was disembarked from the ships that docked by the shores of the river [in Calcutta],” declares the narrator early on in Subha Das
News
2018 marked the year when Trinity College London, the international examinations board, reaffirmed its long standing engagement with India. The Trinity Fest, which brought under one umbrella the many examination suites offered, ranging from the oldest – classical music, to contemporary music – Rock & Pop, Drama and Performance, Communication Skills, performance
Know Your Composer
Orlando Gibbons (1572-1625) was born in Oxford, son of a town wait—essentially a town musician whose duties included playing his instrument for the townsfolk, welcoming Royal visitors, and leading processions on civic occasions. William Gibbons moved back and forth between Oxford and Cambridge, and young Orlando became a chorister
Features
Latest News from On High: From now on in your town Fidelity is banned. If you are found to be faithful on The Day of Sacrifice, you and your partner shall be devoured by the Lake Monster. By Order. It had better not be you! Get unfaithful, quick! This is
Music Education
The first of these articles discussed the need for practice to be relevant in terms of fluency and accuracy, musical detail, style and character. This article explains how to practise mindfully. How to practise Practice should be mindful, with clear objectives that take account of what needs to be learned
News
Since 2010, Con Brio has been pushing the limits of Western classical music performed in India with a focus on local talent. By Florestan Furtado Back in November 2009, when cellist Friedrich Kleinknecht and Parvesh Java met for an early morning coffee at Café Leopold and decided to celebrate the
Travel Diaries
The Stop-Gaps Choral Ensemble of the Stop-Gaps Cultural Academy, now celebrating it’s 34th year, has had the honour of representing the nation at several festivals and competitions abroad over the last decade. This 2018 tour to the United Kingdom marked the Choir’s seventh tour abroad and it’s
Know Your Composer
The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘reminiscence’ as either ‘a story told about a past event remembered by the narrator’ or ‘a characteristic of one thing that is suggestive of another’. We all love to reminisce: we gain comfort by our efforts to recollect the pleasures of our pasts and to
Music Education
No matter what voice type you are, it’s fair to admit that plenty of your most applause-worthy moments come with high notes. Fast high notes, loud high notes, entire-lungful-of-air high notes – they’re what we’re all waiting to hear. There, I said it. When it comes to producing
Music Education
Good practice techniques are essential for all sections of the examination and involve mindful concentration and clear objectives. A practice plan that aims for maximum success needs to address the following: * WHAT to practise What skills need to be practised, and in what proportion? * WHY we practise Formulating practice objectives.