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The NSPA Jukebox
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Home > Jukebox Archive > 30th August, 2014
53 young flute players are born!
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Hello there!
Everybody talks about music being the universal language, but few give credit to the sheer dedication it takes to speak the language fluently! Many try, and our efforts are often completely comical - and who better to humorously illustrate the woes of riyaaz at the crack of dawn, or the troubles of not being able to wrap one's tiny fingers around guitar strings, than children! In 1989, the music teachers at Missouri School (USA) published a few quotes and examination answers from students, with a few hilarious entries. One slightly skeptical student observed that "a trumpet is an instrument when it is not an elephant sound", while another sensibly explained that "when electric currents go through them, guitars start making sounds - but so would anybody!"
The National Streets for Performing Arts (NSPA) team has had a great week with children, and are in the process of creating Uttarakhandi and Carnatic lullabies for our lori video series, so watch this space!
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53 young flute players are born!
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What do you get when you cross one of Kala Ghoda's flute makers with a classroom of 10 - 13 year old enthusiastic pranksters?
The answer: complete chaos! Mohammed Raiz - a remarkably patient old man we always turn to for flutes - paired up with country singer and flute player Rachel Philip to take on Colaba Municipal School's firecrackers last Friday. They demonstrated a few pieces on the flutes, illustrated the proper way of holding them, and taught the children how to play the sapta swar. By the end of what was probably the noisiest hour of our lives, a horde of Pied Pipers clutching colourful ribbon-ed flutes ran out into the rain, no doubt to try charm their families - and eventually drive them crazy!
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We specialize in the unexpected.
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"Those wonderful evenings of hanging out at friends' homes, listening to really talented people - they are gone. Until now!"
- Manoshi Nath, a regular at Leaping Windows comic book library and cafe. When you walk into a local haunt in the heart of Versova to fulfill your Calvin and Hobbes comic strip and green tea cravings, you least expect to be treated to an evening of live Rajasthani and Punjabi folk music! Our singer and guitarist Saurabh Kaushal and multi-percussionist Manoj Pandya pleasantly surprised an audience with lilting mood music, and everyone left grinning because "the food was great, but the ambiance even better!"
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An idyllic evening = Children's poetry + a lone violin + a beloved bookstore!
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"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent," wrote Victor Hugo. For the rest, we believe, there's poetry. One of our earliest recruits Carnatic violinist Mukund Ramaswamy opened and closed the book launch of "To Catch a Poem" - a children's poetry anthology compiled by Anju Makhija and Jane Bhandari - at Kitab Khana on August 27. His melodies spanned his hallmark Titan soundtrack theme, Sant Kabir's music, pure Carnatic classical pieces, familiar Tamil film tunes, and improvised English notes. This fellowship of poetry and music excites us greatly, and we will be performing at Kitab Khana again on the evenings of the 25th, 26th and 27th of September for the "100 Thousand Poets for Change" events!
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Upcoming Events Update: In keeping with our theme for the week - children - we'd like to invite you to our jugalbandhi of genres performance at MCubed Library (Bandra) on 7th September from 6 - 7 pm. Mukund Ramaswamy (Carnatic violinist), Roger Mendonca (Western classical violinist) and Rohit Astekar (folk guitarist) will be exploring their new creative collaboration with an instrumental performance at this lovely children's library. Entry is free and open to all!
As always, our Gold's Gym (Marol from 7.30 - 8.30 pm) and Leaping Windows (Versova from 8 - 10 pm) live musical performances continue every Thursday.
Would you like our artists to perform at your neighbourhood garden, library, museum, school or cafe? Mail us at info@nspa.in with suggestions!
Have a lovely weekend!
Yours,
The NSPA
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