A musical journey to the east

Long recognized as one of the world’s finest musical ensembles, the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) brought to the city a repertoire that included Indian melodies and Carnatic jazz.

LPO’s Renga ensemble, a group of highly trained classical musicians from the Orchestra who work with performers and composers from outside the classical mainstream, is on a ten-day tour of India, during which they hold performances for vast audiences and conduct workshops for young students. They have just completed the Bangalore leg of their journey and are now on their way to Delhi.

In the city, LPO’s Renga ensemble performed with musicians from the Karnataka College of Percussion, combining Indian classical with jazz and Western classical influences and performing a selection of new compositions, based on Carnatic music traditions. The ensemble consisted of ten Western classical musicians and they performed along with Carnatic percussionist TAS Mani, the vocalist Ramamani, percussionist Ramesh Shotham and jazz pianist Mike Herting. The instruments used in the orchestra included the violin, viola, cello, bassoon, mridangam, piano and more.

The LPO, based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom. It is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and also performs concerts at the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne and the Brighton Dome. The LPO has around 80 members but only a small part of this ensemble is visiting India.

From the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Star Wars to Lawrence of Arabia, there are a lot of musical milestones that LPO is famous for, but music for the movies is only of the many genres that the versatile orchestra has dabbled in since its inception in 1932.

Stewart McIlwham, who plays the flute and has been a part of LPO for 13 years says, “Classical music goes back to hundreds of years and every century it is constantly developed and becomes more and more sophisticated.”

According to Stewart, it is a misconception that only middle-aged and older people are interested in classical music. “We have many young people in our audiences too,” he says. “But it is still a challenge for us to get more youngsters in. We have to keep looking at different ways of presenting ourselves and making ourselves relevant. Today we have a highly developed web site, and our own label of CDs attempts to record this period of orchestral history.” Educating young people in classical music is another area they are working on.

Adds Matthew Todd, Education and Community Director, “In India, we see a lot of interest in classical music among youngsters. We held a workshop in Cathedral High School where workshop leader Lucy Forde explained the various kinds of instruments and the different kinds of sounds they make. The work we do with schools forms an integral part of the work we do as an Orchestra.”

With an India tour like this one, the Orchestra hopes to promote classical music in India to as wide an audience as possible and to ensure future growth in the genre. Stewart believes that classical music is something people need to grow up with. “You have to develop an appetite for it and it has go deep into your soul,” he says.

Timothy Walker AM, Chief Executive & Artistic Director, London Philharmonic Orchestra, believes that the tour will break new boundaries in terms of cultural and artistic collaboration. He believes that new partnerships will help deliver its belief in the power of music to transform lives.