Chennai: Musician A R Rahman is not stopping at his Oscar glory and
making sure that the next generation takes it only further. Here is a
CNN-IBN exclusive look into his music conservatory where he is grooming
the next breed of composers.
"We only celebrate what is tradition which is great, which is fantastic. But
what have you contributed?," demanded Rahman.
A
reason why Rahman founded the K M Conservatory - a music school was to
churn out students with musical excellence matching International
standards.
"Composers from here like me and Ilayaraja sir,
anybody, who wants to work with an orchestra with full symphony
orchestra - we had to go abroad and spend thousands of dollars,"
explained Rahman.
However, today students from India and abroad
can come to the K M Conservatory and learn both Indian and Western
classical music, including a range of musical instruments from the
cello to the drums.
There is a preparatory course for beginners,
a foundation one for serious pursuers, apart from this there is also a
three year degree course in collaboration with the Middlesex
University. Most importantly, the conservatory also aims at reviving
dying musical traditions.
"Though we want to concentrate on instruments that are dying like
violin and brass and woodwinds and everything, people are more
interested in piano and composition and voice and all that stuff. We
are also looking at areas where we don't have players like brass and
woodwinds and so many instruments for which we used to have players
before, in the older generation butnot anymore," he said.
Meanwhile,
The A R Rahman Foundation sponsors the musical education of Corporation
School students - aiming to create musical geniuses out of the
under-privileged as well.
However, Rahman's long time vision is to create a signature symphony orchestra
out of his pass-outs.
"We
have classical musicians and we have brass bands, which plays out of
tune so being such a 1.4 billion people we don't have an orchestra in
any of the cities. It used to exist in the 60s but not anymore," he
said.
The foundation has been laid and the course charted and
now all that remains for the conservatory now is to live up to Rahman's
dream of becoming the future of Music.
--
regards..
Krish..
His Music ~ My Mother Tongue
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