Music Education
Brahms, Paganini, Holst, Mahler, Elgar – the Symphony Orchestra of India’s tenth anniversary season shows it has truly come of age. By Zane Dalal Once more the editors of ON Stage have asked me to write in preparation for the forthcoming season of the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI). This
Music Education
Olga Craen, India’s best known pianist in the mid-20th century, lived a dramatic life and left a lasting legacy through her students From the 1930s to the 1950s, Olga Craen was the most celebrated pianist of Bombay, and one of the most acclaimed Indian pianists touring in Europe. When
Music Education
If you haven’t yet heard, there’s a certain waddle of penguins (apparently it’s “waddle”, not “flock”!) in Antarctica that get totally freaked out by the sound of a tenor. *Note: tenor Nick Allen has removed his original upload, after getting concerned feedback from the International Association of
Music Education
With its quaint name, many who hear of this Bangalore based music school ask if they have heard correctly and sometimes how it is pronounced. The name is in fact a hybrid of the two instruments the institute provides specialised training in; the Violin and the Voice. The VioVoi Music
Music Education
Sometime in the mid 1990s, I heard a radio broadcast of a work that to this day remains one of the most unusual, striking and beautiful pieces of music I have ever encountered. As luck would have it, I tuned in somewhere in the middle of the work, so like
Music Education
My first meeting with India was through a friend working at the Swedish Embassy in Delhi around 2005. I stayed three weeks, doing the ordinary tourist thing like the Agra, Taj Mahal, Jaipur and Khajuraho, but we also went to Ladakh and did some high altitude trekking for a few
Music Education
Musical works featuring the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi have given opera a subcontinental touch. Simultaneously considered to be the pinnacle of Western art and an example of melodramatic excess, opera is one of those rare art forms that assists in its own caricature. These
Music Education
Some time ago, while discussing this article by Graham Wade in Classical Guitar Magazine, Veda Aggarwal (Director of the Indian Guitar Federation) asked me to reflect upon my experience of playing in India over the last few years, and in particular, those aspects surrounding performance production that are unique to
Features
In our infancy we are told fairy tales, and these stories retain a great power over us throughout our lives. In many ways the tenets of fairy tales and folk legends are the characteristics of all great music, because all great pieces are fundamentally stories. Calvino writes that in folk
Music Education
Everything used to be simpler before. Classical musicians composed classical music, pop musicians pop and jazz musicians were the exotic birds. But now these boundaries are becoming increasingly obsolete. Artists ranging from Mouse on Mars to Hauschka are going ways that have long remained untrodden. There is plenty happening in
Music Education
One of the first hurdles a young musician meets as he or she pursues advanced training is the fact that there are never enough practice rooms.Music students and graduates, how many hours do you think you’ve spend sitting in practice room hallways, thumbing through your scores, eagerly looking
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
