Interviews
Brahms and Gerald Finzi at first glance make strange bed-fellows but this recital in Pune made it convincing. Baritone Rahul Bharadwaj has a brisk and confident personality eminently suited to the heavy Germanic nature of Brahms’ emotional music. His open-throated voice and forward diction made for an engaging beginning to
Features
The most common form of popular music in India is film music – songs from the movies, and Sperry has not shied away from adapting this form for choirs. Popular Music in Choral Format As mentioned in Part I of this series, the Natya Shastra intertwines drama, music and dance. Contemporary
News
Budding musician and Baltimore (USA)–based high schooler, Rishi Shet will join his musical talents with other young musicians from The Bangalore School of Music, to present ‘String Theory Concert’, featuring Rishi Shet in violin solos as well as ensemble-playing alongside BSM students, Anandatara Gautham on the viola, Nayantara Gautham
News
The Asawari Music Foundation (AMF) is a nonprofit organisation that promotes Western musical excellence among children and teens. It was started to keep alive the memory and spirit of Asawari Jacob – a musically gifted girl who lost her life to cancer at age 15. AMF’s marquee activity is annual
Travel Diaries
After a fantastic and intense two months of competing with India’s best singers on Rising Star 2 on Colors TV, a national level singing competition, and finishing off at India’s Top 8, the Harmony Chorus directed by Sandra Oberoi embarked on a grand concert tour to Russia! This
Music Education
What would opera singers be without their stretchy, malleable tempos? More specifically, where would they be without the unwritten rules – “performance practice”, they’re often called – about when you simply must take some extra time? Opera is no place for heartless clockwork; but when it comes to mastering operatic skills,
Music Education
The celebrated Russian guitarist and composer Nikita Arnoldovich Koshkin (born 1956) needs no introduction to any serious modern classical guitarist. In a prolific performing and compositional career that shows no signs of abating, Koshkin has threaded a unique sonic voice into the history of the instrument, and his works continue
Features
“One reason I love performing non-Western music is because I don’t find non-Western ideas in the music. I find basic human emotions and experiences that I have, I share, and I understand.” That outlook helps Ethan Sperry take on the daunting challenge of transplanting music between disparate traditions. Sperry
Interviews
The Madras Musical Association (MMA) was founded in 1893 in Chennai (formerly Madras) at St Andrew’s Church in Egmore and celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2018. The MMA initially comprised an all-European group of musicians and was set up to perform Western choral and classical music. With the onset
Know Your Composer
According to popular legend, Orlande de Lassus, born in 1530 or 1532 in the Franco-Flemish province of Hainaut, was abducted three times because of the beauty of his voice! Probably pure fabrication, it nevertheless provides a fictional narrative that explains how the 12-year-old boy came to be in the services
Reviews
On 24th and 25th April 2018, Tata Theatre audiences at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai had the distinct and rare opportunity of hearing not one nor two but all five piano concertos by Beethoven. We have to thank the NCPA who regularly partners with touring foreign orchestras
Music Education
DEVELOP A PLAN FOR DRILLING THE TRICKY BITS IN YOUR MUSIC One of the skills you should take with you as you leave post-secondary education is a solid method of learning your own music. While you still have support from regular coaches and teachers, get specific about the steps you
