The Past, Present & Future of the Bangalore Conservatory

The Past

Our family moved from sunny Southern California to Bangalore in 1996, twenty years ago. Our plan was to help my wife’s parents for a few years with a Bible college they run, New Life College (www.newlifecollege.org). We started having weekend music in worship seminars and discovered a great interest and need for formal music training for church musicians. In 1998 we started the Summer Music Seminar (SMS), an intensive short-term learning program with the foundations of Western Classical music. In 2005 we started the Center for Music Education as an academy for children seeking Western Classical musical training and the degree program that became the Bangalore Conservatory. Today, our programs are all in the Western Classical music training tradition.

The Present

We have Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education, Vocal Performance, and Church Music Leadership, and a Master of Music in Music Education and plan to start a Master of Music in Church Music Leadership, and possibly a MM in Vocal Performance the 2017-18 academic year. Roughly 50 graduates have completed their Bachelor of Music degrees. Their accomplishments are the most exciting part of our work:

• Adarsh Chettergi Master of Music in Percussion Performance, & Ethnomusicology Berkley School.
• Amy Joseph, Music director at St. Joseph’s College
• Asenla Longchar, BM grad & Master of Music candidate at BC, is a music teacher, vocal specialist, BC.
• Ashok Pushparaj, music coordinator, Clarence High School, Bangalore, MM MuEd candidate, BC.
• Joanna Ernest, Worship Leader choir director, music teacher Garden City Assembly of God Church, completing an MA in Church Music Leadership in
• Nikita Batavia, is now completing her Master’s Certificate in Arranging, Berkley School, & writing music commercially
• Radhika Sthumadhavan, host of TV music programs & vocal coach in Cochin. MM MuEd candidate, BC.
• Raoul Raphael, music teacher, founder of band Muzaholix
• Roshan Jonas, music teacher, band director, founder of LM School of Music & Worship
• Sandi Oberoi, BM grad, completed her Master of Arts in Music Education at Northwestern University, is Founder & Director of Harmony School of Music (harmonybangalore.com), Koramangala to name a few. Other graduates have started schools and teach music throughout the city and in other states in India.

The Future

Our goal is to give our students the same or superior quality music training experience as they would experience if they studied anywhere else in the world. To facilitate this we have plans to build a world-class facility for music training. We’ll announce later the 30 crore project to build a 70,000 square foot music college. Stay tuned. We’re grateful to be a part of the community in India that invests in the arts-the human activities that ennoble, lift and enlighten the soul.