Calcutta School of Music hopes that more young people will turn to it.
It’s music season in the City of Joy. And the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra’s concert season to adding to it. The Calcutta School of Music has a full-fledged string orchestra comprising 24 musicians.
Founded in 1917 by The Oxford Mission in Behala, the organisation taught music to underprivileged students. “Now we have over 800 students and 54 teachers,” says Dickoo Nowroji, President, CSM .
This year being the bicentenary of Chopin, the school organised a number of performances as a tribute to the great composer. The celebration started in March, with a performance by Adolovni Acosta, a Filipina pianist. Last month, a Chopin concert was held where polish maestro and dean of piano of the Chopin Institute in Warsaw played a solo followed by a dance presentation by Madhu Natraj’s troupe, STEM, from Bangalore. Pervez Mody followed it up with an all Chopin recital and fundraiser on December 1. The idea was to create awareness about western classical music among today’s youth.
Along with regular recitals and fundraising events, CSM has tied up with ITC to promote western classical music in Kolkata schools through the ‘Fiama Crescendo contest’. “This initiative was taken to contemporise western classical music,” says Nowroji. He believes that the younger generation is more interested in popular music and is drifting away from mainstream western classical music that commands dedication and good training.
“The Calcutta Chamber Orchestra,” says Chaitali Ganguli, the head of the Western Music Department at CSM, “is one of the best orchestras in the country.
We have a dedicated and mature audience in the city but we would like to have more youngsters to support this music.”