City to pay tribute to Schumann’s music

The musical world has been busy celebrating French composer Chopin’s 200th birthday this year. But in Mumbai, this week, some music lovers have chosen to pay homage to another musician.

The musical world has been busy celebrating French composer Chopin’s 200th birthday this year. But in Mumbai, this week, some music lovers have chosen to pay homage to another musician.

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Starting Saturday, music store Furtados and the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) will organise a four-day musical festival, Schumania, to mark the 200th birthday of German composer Robert Schumann, on June 8.

The festival will include concerts by internationally acclaimed pianists as well as a national-level piano competition themed on Schumann pieces.

“Schumann’s work is just amazing, but sadly he has not been as mainstream as Beethoven, Chopin or Mozart,” said Parvesh Java (26) a city-based free-lance pianist and the director of Schumania.

Java, who has been playing the piano for 18 years, studied Schumann for the first time last year.

“I could not believe that this composer is hardly taught in music classes, and knew I had to mark his bicentenary in a big way,” he said.

Java teamed up with Furtados to make the festival interactive - after scouring the country for talent, they selected 12 young pianists who will participate in the first Con Brio piano competition on June 6 and 7.

The theme, of course, is Schumann, and the first prize is an Essex piano worth Rs 4 lakh. The festival will be held at the NCPA from June 5 to 8. Full schedule of the semi-finals and finals as well as the concerts are available on www.schumania.in.