The violin is his voice. But between whirlwind music tours, whenever a new tune is brewing in his mind, Manoj George, 42, the world renowned violinist and music composer hums it and stores it on his mobile phone. George is the first and the only Indian violinist to receive the coveted endorsements from Roland and Cantini, the popular international musical instrument making brands. After world- renowned percussionist Shivamani and well known music composer Louis Banks, George is the first violinist from India to endorse the products. Roland and Cantini have gifted him violins worth `1.5 lakh.
George has come a long way from his native Thrissur, in Kerala when he was part of the local church choir. George, recently returned from a tour of UK and has a string of performances in many venues—ranging from Bangalore central jail to London to Australia and the United States of America. George says, “The violin is closest to the human voice and I have been aiming to do weave its sound with the colloquially spoken language forms. The Malayalam spoken in Thrissur is considered the most musical and I have been able to string it through the violin. People have identified and liked it.” The multitude of influences on Manoj George’s musical character has given birth to his band, ManojGeorge4strings — a World-Fusion band of five artistes. The band has performed across the country during the last four years.
George has performed with various other bands and shared the stage with renowned musicians like violin maestro Dr L Subramaniam, Shivamani, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Trilok Gurtu, Lucky Ali, and many more. “I play fusion music and also my own compositions. In Dubai, once with Hariharan, I performed a jugalbandi (a duet) in the Arabic style. If it is in China, we collaborate with local artistes. We play their tunes giving a sense of intimacy to the local audience. The response is usually good even for Mozart, or folk compositions,” he adds.
His tryst with music began when as a 12 year old, he saw somebody playing the violin as part of the church choir in Thrissur. This led him to learn the instrument from Lesli Peter for the three years. It was a steady learning process. He was part of a western orchestra. “I accompanied Yesudas, Chitra and other well known artistes in many concerts and shows all over Kerala. At the Calicut University’s music competition my training took a sharp curve with Father Thomas Chakkalamathah who noticed my talent taking me to Pondicherry. I started learning western classical music at the Cluny Academy under the tutelage of Sister Judith. Although I had heard Mozart and Beethoven on the tape but never got to learn all the pieces or practice them. Three years of study and finally, I became a Licentiate performer in Violin from the Trinity College of Music London.” George hails from a musical family. His father was a song writer, his siblings, one a guitarist and another a drummer, inspired him to plunge whole heartedly into music. Exposed to Western classical styles, music books and notations, Manoj came to Bangalore once a week and was tutored by Philomena Thambuchetty, a classmate of Yehudi Menuhin. “I learned various styles, finger exercises and started writing music. Later, I was associated with the Bangalore School of Music as the Concert Master for eight long years and met a lot of international artistes. Exposing myself to other genres of music, I learned a bit of Carnatic music too,” he adds.
In 2001, he formed the band Antaragini with Raghu Dixit and for five years. “It was one of the best bands and we were invited to Canada. I left the band in 2005 as I wanted to go solo.” Manoj adds, “My career as a solo artist began in 2005 and I toured 14 cities as part of a contemporary dance group with artistes hailing from US, Russia, Sri Lanka and India. It was two months of intense playing.”
He has left his musical footprints in the film world too. Apart from the several compositions in Rag Jog, the artiste has given background scores of Malayalam film Kharaksharangal which won the National award for the Best Children’s film in 2001. “Composing music for a band is different. It is your own feelings. On the other hand, for a film, it is for a situation. Not much choice is given unless the director is supportive and gives space to creativity. The director of Vadhyaar gave me lot of freedom and supported me. I have done lot of recordings for Kannada composers like Hamsalekha, Manomurthy and Gurukiran.”
Musical influences
■ Listening to and meeting Zubin Mehta in Mumbai was an extraordinary experience for George. He has also been inspired by L Subramaniam during the Global Harmony concert.
■ He was tutored by Philomena Thambuchetty, a classmate of Yehudi Menuhin.