BENGALURU: When one of our senses are impaired, the others get heightened to compensate. If we're visually challenged, our hearing, sense of smell and hearing get sharper to make up for the loss of sight. Keeping this in mind, a special concert is coming to town next week, which aims at helping the audience live an hour in the life of a visually challenged person.
Called 'Music in the Dark', the concert is being organised by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Bengaluru, the Max Mueller Bhavan, the Bangalore School of Music and the National Association for the Blind, Karnataka. The artists performing at this concert are Sandro Schneebeli and Max Pizio from Switzerland, who hail from parts of Switzerland that speak Italian.
"These artists speak Italian, and the concert is part of Italian language week. They will be performing in four Indian cities. We organise events for German and French language week as well, and this concept, though not unfamiliar in other parts of the world, is relatively new to India," says Conny Camezind, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of Switzerland.
The audience will be led into a dark room by two visually challenged people, and the artists have composed a unique set that will provide listeners with an intense experience with sound, touch and smell.
Through the concert, various string, wind and percussion instruments will be played, and the audience won't even get to see who is sitting right next to them or the artists, save for the last ten minutes of the concert. Artist Sandro says that in a completely dark environment, the audience will only hear sounds, voices, tone and music with a much deeper intensity, giving one the chance to open up emotionally through music.
"The concept is to help people understand what real darkness is. There will be absolutely no light, and two blind persons, Chowdappa and Manjunath, will help guests navigate the room," says Srinivas, CEO, National Association for the blind, Karnataka. He adds that efforts like these are made by them to ensure that visually challenged people from urban and rural areas are independent.
While entry is free, interested people can register by writing to tobsmconnect87@gmail.com, and passes can be collected 30 minutes prior to the commence of the concert – at 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm, respectively – at Max Mueller Bhavan, Indiranagar.