Bengaluru's students hit a crescendo, attend top music training session in Italy

Bengaluru: A group of students and their teacher from the city dared to dream, and are now part of a global music scene. The team eight students from Greenwood High International School, led by Mr Omprakash Roy, the head of music and theatre department was officially selected to perform at the 8th International Music Festival ‘Luci della Ribalta’, organised by the Associazione Mozart Italia sede di Terni, in Italy, recently.

Claiming it to be a first for a school in the country, Mr Roy said that the experience at Narni in central Italy has changed the perspective of every student in the team. “Our students are lucky to have experienced this early in now they have become serious learners of Western music. The 11-day session enriched their learning,” he said.

Apart from sharing the stage with young musicians from across the world, the students also underwent rigorous one-on-one training with world famous music maestros and teachers, including Felice Cusano, Fedor Rudin, Shalom Budeer (violin), David Eggert (cello), Calogero Palermo (clarinet), Gustavo Nunez (bassoon), cellists Luca Pincini, Sandra Belic, Emil Rovner (cello) and more.

A music director and conductor himself, Mr Roy was also selected for training sessions. “Every hour of those 11 days was productive and we were completely devoted to music. Our focus was only on picking up right techniques from the stalwarts of the field,” he said.

For ninth grade student Siddharth Sundararajan, who specialises in classical guitar, the classes were not just about mastering technical skills. “We were made to understand the deep essence of music and to grow as complete musicians,” he said.

Another student Amirtha Gandhi, who was selected for piano classes, said that the trip opened multiple opportunities for her. “I have become aware of many new instruments used in Western Classical Orchestras. This helped me identify different musical sounds. The trip also inspired me to take up music as my career,” she said.

The team, which also included Rohan Basavaraja, Paartha Soni, Sampreeth Immidisetty, Sahil Shetty (classical guitar), Tulsi Fernandez (piano) and Divya Pakalapati (violin) were awarded a diploma of merit certification from Associazione Mozart, Italia.