British orchestra tunes city students to Western classical

On Thursday morning, Tabish Qureshi sat fascinated in the auditorium of Mazgaon’s St Peter’s School as 10 musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) demonstrated the difference between violins and violas, trumpets and trombones, clarinets and oboes.

On Thursday morning, Tabish Qureshi sat fascinated in the auditorium of Mazgaon’s St Peter’s School as 10 musicians from the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) demonstrated the difference between violins and violas, trumpets and trombones, clarinets and oboes.

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The Class 7 student was one the 400 children from the school who were given a unique workshop on Western classical music by the renowned British orchestra that will perform for the first time in Mumbai on Saturday.

“I loved the sweet sound of the violin, and I will ask my parents to buy me one so I can learn it,” said Qureshi, who had seen neither the instrument nor an orchestra before.

The LPO, which has conducted several workshops to expose children to classical music in England, used humorous, interactive means to hold the students’ interest.

“Unfortunately schools in India do not focus much on learning music, and the Western classical form is completely new to them,” said Richard Dissil, a French horn player in the orchestra, who brought with him a simple funnel and rubber tube to demonstrate the mechanism behind brass instruments.

The school was overjoyed at having been selected for the workshop, and hopes the exposure inspires students to take up music. “Even if one student takes up an instrument, it would mean a lot for us,” said Brian Robin, principal of St Peters, who also plans to introduce a brass band for students in the school.

(This tour has been enabled by Aviva who are the International Touring Partner of the event and Hindustan Times is the Supporting Partner of the same.)