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I remember Saturdays in Don Bosco being somewhat festive, because at 11 o’clock the school intercom would play music from the Radio Ceylon station. I’m not sure if this was for the whole school, but this was certainly true for the primary section which I was in, during
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Four years ago, I wrote a column, ‘Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow’, celebrating the life and times of a then little-known French-Caribbean composer, the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799). At the time I had
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On the campus tour of the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres, sighs and gasps are customary. As the doors open to reveal the Winter Garden Theatre, a collective “wow” comes up crooning like it is a rehearsed part of the tour. “It never fails,” Ellen Flowers, the Marketing and Communications
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Maria Callas, often hailed as “La Divina” (The Divine), was one of the most iconic and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Her life, marked by dramatic highs and lows, mirrored the intense emotions of the operatic roles she so brilliantly portrayed. Callas’s contributions to opera, her unique
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I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the recently-concluded ‘In/Of Goa: Souza at 100’ an exhibition of the artworks of the celebrated Goan artist Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) on the occasion of his birth centenary at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts. The exhibition aimed “to shed light on the profound influence
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I set aside some time this Good Friday to listen to the complete St. John Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Besides being fitting music for that day of the Holy Week, this year marks the 300th anniversary of the work. In Christian music, a Passion is a setting of
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The June of 1978 marked a rare occurrence. The American rock legend Bruce Springsteen had a reputation for being reluctant to perform outdoors. But when he was told, “Red Rocks is simply indoors without a roof ”, a curious Springsteen was compelled to come around. His debut at the Red Rocks
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Suzuki is a household name worldwide for any western music student or teacher. As someone invested in music education, the life of Shinichi Suzuki is endlessly fascinating to me. So I found ‘Suzuki: The Man and his Dream to Teach the Children of the World’ (2022) by Eri Hotta a
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The SOI Spring 2024 Season brims with the beauty of orchestral music featuring the return of beloved artistes and the India debut of a Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano, a celebrated conductor, and a masterful cellist. We speak to Gergely Madaras, Sasha Cooke and Bryan Cheng ahead of their debut at the
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“Maestro” is a word that resonates across concert music. From the Italian word for master, it is applied most frequently to a respected and established conductor of operas and orchestras but can also be used to refer to virtuoso instrumentalists. Despite its gendered form (male), the term has been regularly
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Every corner of the historic cityscape of Edinburgh—the cobbled streets, the tall medieval architecture and the green hills—has learned to breathe art and music. It is a small city, but the cultural wealth it nurtures is enormous. The Scottish Parliament Building that sits within the UNESCO World Heritage
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The acclaimed British contemporary cellist Steven Isserlis is also passionate about music education for children. During my England years, much before I became a father myself or was even contemplating beginning a music education charity for children (incidentally, both my son and Child’s Play India Foundation were born the
