As the city basks in the melodious glory of the Carnatic carnival, Margazhi, a burgeoning lot of funky musicians are making tunes that resonate with a much larger audience.
Chennai’s gusto for good music has always been enormous. For those not wanting to be pinned down to one particular genre, new-age music institutions are now adding newer brands of music into their curriculum.
For a music apprentice in the city, finding their passion and beat has never been this simple. “Our city is a massive consumer of art, culture and music, till now we didn’t have these many avenues in music. But that’s slowly changing now, as a herd of international artistes and musical acts are finding their niche in Chennai."
"So far it was only rock, pop and hip-hop that was known, heard and taught, but now we have categories like funk, Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz seeping in,” says Shyam Rao, drummer and vice-president at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music.
From flying down music experts from Greece to Turkey, Brazil and Cuba, music schools are sure going that extra mile to inculcate new genres and helping students warm up to new kinds of sound.
“We’ve had music experts from over nineteen countries come down to tutor our students like the world renowned bassist Panagiotis Andreou from Greece and Grammy nominee drummer Dafnis Prieto from Cuba. The response to these workshops has been phenomenal, the students get to learn the art straight from these connoisseurs, and the interactions have proved very helpful for our students. We’ve also had these specialist put up stage performances along with our students and we’ve had jam-packed avenues."
"We have members of famous bands like Something relevant and the winner of recent talent show in the The family tree studying with us, the need to formalise their passion for music by studying it is more than ever,” he adds.
Speaking of the demand, Jyothi Nair of K M Conservatory, an institution founded by A. R. Rahman, says, “There is a huge demand for alternative forms of music. Carnatic and Hindustani are still popular and parents do enroll kids. But at later stages, the adolescents and mid-career musicians want to experiment with different forms of music.”
In a city which has sponsors lining up to fund classical arts, Guitarist Ricardo Eccleston, says, “It’s not that bad. There is a market and a renewed interest from funders in good music, be it classical or contemporary.”
