Interviews
Please share your background with us. My name is Alpesh Chauhan and I am a conductor. My parents were born in East Africa (father in Tanzania and mother in Kenya) of Indian descent (Gujarati). I was born in Birmingham (UK) and grew up there, learning the cello from the age
News
The Madras Musical Association is headed to Vienna this month. We wish them the very best for their concert tour. Here’s what they had to say – “The Madras Musical Association choir, with 123 years of promotion of Western classical music in India, has had the opportunity to sing by
Features
It is quite clear that – at least at certain levels – we live in a globalised world. New technologies developed over the last years in the fields of transportation and digital communication are allowing us now to travel and access knowledge with remarkable ease and speed. Among other advantages, the access
Reviews
The Capital City Minstrels, a 22 year old Delhi based choir, have been crooning to audiences across cities and countries for quite some time. They have had a variety of choir conductors. Without a doubt, they have emerged as a ‘versatile and dynamic choir’ as expressed in their press note.
Travel Diaries
I moved to Paris after completing my Master’s Degree in Piano Performance in the States. Living and studying there for three years was one of the most significant events of my life. Going back each year to perform is always a highlight — revisiting old neighbourhoods, catching up with dear
Meet the Maestro
Nikhil Sardana: Where did you grow up and pursue your music studies? What led you to choosing a career in conducting? Alexander Briger: I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. I started playing the violin at a very young age and became serious about this instrument by the age
Reviews
It is unusual for an operatic production to be equally riveting at a visual and an aural level: typically one wins out, and one makes do with the lesser other. This phenomenon was taken to an extreme in the current production of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde at the Theatre
Features
As I travel and work throughout mainland Western Europe I find that there is a real love and understanding for music, which is developed and cultivated from birth. For example, a lot of my work at the moment is in Italy where typically children grow up familiar with the opera
Music Education
Who hasn’t at least once been told something along these lines: slow practice – slow practice is king – slow is smooth, smooth is fast and other such platitudinous maxims? As a young guitarist (or any sort of musician), young in either experience or years or both, there comes a point
Music Education
Often, people are curious about all the vibrato they hear from opera singers. Compared to the way most pop singers use their voices, vibrato can seem like an effect, superimposed by the singer in an active way, to achieve that “opera singer sound”. In reality, vibrato is the result of
Features
On a hot afternoon on Good Friday in Goa, when the streets were deserted and the shops shuttered, I sat in what used to be an old mint and listened with rapt attention to Luis’ story. A story about how music can change lives. “I remember as a child, going
Features
Please share your background with us. I am from the Netherlands where I pursued my violin studies. Then I went on to university to study mathematics. I worked in the field of mathematics between 1981 and 1995, but then fully returned to the music world. In between, I have always