QUALITY PERFORMANCES BY GIFTED STUDENTS
A great variety of music, from western classical, to pop, was heard at the concert by the Kodaikanal International School, held at the St Mary's Degree College Auditorium, on the 23rd of February 2019.
And, the music was performed at such a respectable degree of proficiency by all the students, in all the different formats, that it was only because we were in the audience and could see for ourselves that they were young students playing and singing, that we could believe our ears.
Not only did we in the audience marvel
at the musical talent on display at the concert by the students of Kodaikanal
International School (KIS for short) and the dedication of their music teachers
who, I am sure, played a huge part in training, inspiring and nurturing them, but
also, at the school, for giving so much importance and encouragement to the
teaching and learning of music, and providing excellent facilities for the pursuit
of music, along with academic curriculum.
We also had to marvel at the
school administration,
to decide to make the trip to Hyderabad. What a logistic
feat it must have been for the school administration to arrange for the
transportation of all the student musicians and staff, and instruments and
equipment from Kodaikanal!
Kodaikanal is only accessible by a three-hour
journey by road from Madurai. They travelled to Madurai, and then to Hyderabad,
and back from Hyderabad to Madurai, just to perform for us in Hyderabad! And
for us in the audience it was a marvellous experience!
The evening's performance began
with the School's advanced orchestra, the KIS Orchestra, of around forty
musicians conducted by Sarah, that played a classical French love song, Plaisir D’Amour "The pleasure of
love" by composed by Giovanni Martini in 1784, and arranged by Robert
Longfield. The piece sounded familiar in some parts as one heard snatches of the
song Can't help falling in love that
was famously sung by Elvis Presley amongst others. it was good to hear a good
orchestral sound from the young orchestra which some teachers also playing in
it.
The next piece played was the Johnny
Appleseed Suite by Robert Kerr, a suite in three movements and we heard traces
of the song Edelweiss from the musical The
Sound of Music in this. The orchestra had a good seven or eight-minute
workout to show their skill in creating graphic pictures where we could
actually imagine the goings-on in the movements entitled, Johnny's planting song, Johnny's prayer and the final Johnny's hoedown, in the hoedown, the
fiddlers made the fairground dance music come alive.
The next few items on the card
were the students performing solos. And whether it was young Mr Jai Mohan Malik
on Saxophone showing good tone, clarity and technique on Palotas and Friss by Josef
Balogh or Nina Hariharan, who sang the song 'Secret Love" in a naturally
melodious voice and handled the rarely heard and difficult-to-sing introduction
really well, or Miss Eojin Kim who flawlessly played the Allegro from Handel's
Sonata in F on Flute, and made a not-so-simple piece of music sound simple. And
Marie Chalard, who played the Boccherini Minuet on clarinet with first-rate
articulation. We noted that wherever a keyboard was required, one of the music teacher's,
Edwin, accompanied them. Edwin, actually accompanied all the formats of all the
various musical items, wherever required, throughout the evening.
The next few items on the
programme, were quartets. The Clarinet Quartet played the Rondo from Mozart
String Quartet No.1 K.80, The musicians, Aryan Patel, Gershom Nirmal, Marie
Chalard and Wangden Dhondup were perfectly precise and the Rondo was good to
listen to. They next performed an excerpt from Mvt.1 in G major by W A Mozart 'A
Little Night Music' – it was a skillful performance of a beautiful piece of
music and it was particularly gratifying to hear the bass clarinet giving depth
to the quartet and providing the counterpoint. The Flute Quartet - Seunghyun
Im, Sharanjay Pradhan, RaeHannah Balaraju, Eojin Kim, played a short but pretty
tune in perfect harmony 'Wild Roses' by
Zdeňka Horáčková.
The Deccan Voices conducted by
Joe Koster, also the accompanist on piano, rendered an enjoyable version of
Freddie Mercury's Bohemian Rhapsody.
The KIS Advanced Choir of about
forty student voices and directed by Christina, took the stage to render two
tunes from La La Land, 'Another Day of
Sun', and 'Someone In The Crowd',
by Jay Althouse, arranged by Alan Billingsley, the young choir performed both
these tunes creditably.
The conductor Christina, who had
sung in the Deccan Voices while she lived in Hyderabad, then invited the Deccan
Voices to join the KIS Advanced Choir to sing 'City of Stars' from La La Land.
And the Deccan Voices sang one more
song along with the KIS Advanced Choir, the song was the famous Jazz standard 'I'm beginning to see the light'. The
combined choir sounded very good, with the
mature voices of the Deccan Voices adding depth and volume to the rendering of
these songs.
The KIS Advanced Band, a forty-student
band of horns and wind instruments with bass percussion, xylophone and drums,
conducted by Joel, played a set of tunes from the Computer animated movie The Incredibles composed by Michael Giacchino and arranged by Jay Bocook.
The KIS Advanced Band also did Arabian Dances by Roland Barett, in
which the clapping sequence came out so well, and the soundtrack highlights of
the American superhero film Guardians of
the Galaxy, arranged by Michael Brown. All the three of the items were a
treat to the ear, and, to see the students enjoying playing these tunes with as
much restraint as enthusiasm was a wonderful experience.
And that was the end of a
delightful evening of music by the KIS students. It was an evening well
spent... in a world of music created by schoolchildren who played and sang with
talent, discipline and maturity, like professionals.
The whole organisation of this
event was done with discipline and professionalism, and the leader Paul Jaikumar
from KIS, who proposed the vote of thanks at the end thanked Joe Koster, The
Hyderabad Western Music Foundation, and the Deccan Voices, amongst others, for
making this possible, however Joe Koster gave credit where it was due, and gave
Paul Jaikumar, Joel, conductor of the Advanced Band, Sarah, the conductor of
the Advanced Orchestra, Christina, conductor of the Advanced Choir and the
pianist Edwin, memento's and thanked them for coming to Hyderabad and bringing
and taking care of the talented KIS students.
Photographs: Joe Koster
Photographs: Joe Koster
