KOCHI: Playing Western classical music, especially the sonatas is not a child’s play. However, a 12-year-old boy is proving the saying wrong! Clearing the Associate of Trinity College London (ATCL) in piano, a Level 4 diploma in Music Performance by the prestigious Trinity College London, Sourojit Dutta of Kolenchery has disproved the notion. He has become the youngest Indian to clear the very tough test.
“It was a 34-minute-long recital that included pieces of musical maestros like Beethoven and Chopin,” said Sourojit. He performed at the Classicplayers Music Academy in Kolenchery on September 29 this year. Music has fascinated Sourojit from a very young age. “I started trying out playing the piano as a six-year-old,” said the class VI student. According to Suparna Dutta, his mother, he began by accompanying his elder sister Priyadarshini who plays the violin.
“But we soon realised that he was very much into playing the piano and got him enrolled so that he could learn to play the instrument professionally,” said Suparna, who is a philosophy teacher. Sourojit is now preparing to appear for the Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL) exam. “These are very prestigious exams,” said the 12-year-old whose goal is to become a concert pianist.
“It was not easy preparing for the exams,” said Sourojit who practised for six hours at stretch. Playing the sonatas takes a lot of practice and patience, he added. According to Anil K Cheriyan, his instructor at Classicplayers Music Academy in Kolenchery, playing the works of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert is not something that can be taken lightly. “Sourojit has an ear for music and also a deep-rooted interest in Western classical music. His playing got very much refined during the lockdown period,” said Anil adding Sourojit joined the academy two years back.
Explaining more about the exams, Anil said, “Normally, the exam happens offline. A centre is fixed by the Trinity College London. A judge comes down and records the performance, of 40-minute duration, of the candidate and then sends it to the college for evaluation. However, this time, due to the pandemic the exam was conducted online.” It seems music is coded in his genes. His dad Sumit Dutta, the head of the community medicine at Kolenchery Medical Mission Hospital, is also very much into music.