BENGALURU : The Bangalore School of Music has had a busy six months. Keeping the musical spirit high, the school has spent the past few months ‘staging’ various digital concerts through its different departments and ensembles, wherein faculty members and students alike performed and were a part of shows they streamed online. Now, their upcoming concert is a culmination of their efforts thus far, bringing together as many as 100 students from all their departments like piano, keyboard, saxophone, clarinet, percussion, flute, guitar, recorder, violin and strings, singing, etc.
“It’s our finale concert for the year because we hope that by January, we will be able to hold face-to-face classes and concerts again,” says Rebecca Thomas Colaco, head of faculty, who is also the special curator for the students’ concert, called Kaleidoscope. The 75-minute long concert will be streamed on Bangalore School of Music’s YouTube page on Saturday.
Work for the concert began with a round of auditions, which were judged by city-based Swedish singer and vocal coach Jonas Olsson and Soundarie David Rodrigo, a pianist, choral conductor and educator from Sri Lanka.
“From these, we shortlisted four groups and 25 individuals for the pre-recorded concert,” says Colaco, who hopes that the event will help students find joy in performing again. While the event will cover a variety of genres and music periods, there will also be special performances by The Bangalore Men led by Olsson, The BSM Chamber Orchestra led by Anant Kamat, Grace Biswas-led The BSM Youth Orchestra, and a performance by students of The Star Strings Orchestra led by Nayantara Gautam.
For eight-year-old Yasmin Meenakshi Vaidya, who will perform a piece on a piano, practising for the performance gave her something to be engaged with these days. “Her last live concert was in Christmas, so practising for this one helped her stay excited about music,” says Vaidya’s mother, Sumati Surya. Vaidya adds, “A live concert is better but I am still excited about this.”
Agrees Rachel Rajesh Raykar, a student who will play an alto recorder. Talking about the lack of audience reaction in an online concert, the 14-year-old, who relocated to Bengaluru from Brunei some years ago, says, “Since my performance was from the comfort of my home, there was less stage fright. And my friends back in Brunei can also watch me perform,” she says.The concert will be streamed on Bangalore School of Music’s YouTube page on Oct. 17 at 6pm.