On July 30, 500 children from various schools will go up on stage and perform at a choral concert. Thanks to month-long training by Italian artistes from Barcelona’s choir school Palau de la Musica Catalana and India’s Mehli Mehta Music Foundation, a non-profit music organisation.
Kamal Taraporewala of Mehli Mehta Foundation did the rounds of different schools to see the level of talent in choral singing before finalising the concert. “We have a lot to learn when it comes to choral music. Palau de la Musica Catalana has a 120 years tradition of only choral singing.
We don’t have that kind of professional training in India. But the musicians who came down form the academy have taught a lot to the children. The kids have been quite charged up and have learnt to sing in five different languages. It’s also been a great cultural exchange,” she says.
Gemma Nadal, is one of the five artistes who are here for the concert training from Barcelona. She is also the manager of the choir school. The idea for collaboration stemmed from a meeting with music conductor Zubin Mehta, who is also on the advisory council of Mehli Mehta Music Foundation.
Gemma says, “He (Zubin) is one of the patrons of our foundation in Barcelona. We have done some concerts with him. When the concept came up, we spoke to him and we realised it would be a great idea to collaborate with his foundation.”
According to Gemma, the experience of working with kids in India has been a great one. She can’t wait to see the results at the actual concert.
“Our experience has been very good and we discovered a lot about ourselves while working with the kids. We taught them songs in Italian, German, Spanish and Maori languages. Interestingly, we also got to learn a lot about Indian classical music. It’s been an enriching time working here,” she says.
