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PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

NEW FRONTIERS A.R. Rahman

He lured an entire generation of musicians towards technology. And now he comes a full circle, trying to get them back on track. A.R. Rahman’s current passion is to create an authentic Indian orchestra. The first step towards that is establishing the K.M. Music Conservatory as a bridge between music, technology and culture. The conservatory will help techno-savvy sound-engineers to learn the basics of composing and spend time with instruments hands-on and musicians to learn the importance of technology and the basics of sound recording. And thus, create that unique Indian orchestral sound. Or symphony as Rahman likes to call it.

“We want our Hindustani and Carnatic musicians to be able to read Western notations and adapt to playing with other musicians,” says Rahman.

Symphony is not to be confused with Western Classical Music, he clarifies using his ‘Bombay’ theme to explain. “That was essentially Indian but it played out through a Western sensibility.” Rahman’s vision is to create an orchestra that not only sounds distinctly Indian but also blends various aspects of Indian culture and bhakti, which he believes, is at the heart of orchestral symphony. “Devotion is the basic element in all the music. It’s an open thing, so many things can be done,” he says.

After frequent trips to Prague and Birmingham to record orchestral sound for his films, Rahman pondered over the need for our own orchestra. “We are a country of 1.4 billion people and we don’t have our own national symphony orchestra. Since then, it’s been a burning desire to have something like that of our own.”

The reason why music directors go abroad to record orchestral music is that what takes two months of effort in India can be completed with foreign orchestras in four days, he says. “There’s so much perfection in the way they approach music and translate notes. ”

Rahman probably knows he’s responsible for more and more music directors slanting towards technology-based music. “Our source of entertainment has always been monopolised by films but there’s a different kind of entertainment too: Orchestral music which is on the other side of art. If we educate our people, we could get that into the mainstream,” he explains.

As the founder Principal of K.M. Conservatory, Rahman has pulled all strings and created an advisory panel consisting of a repertoire of veteran musicians, both Indian and Western. The conservatory received about 250 applications since the announcement . Rahman’s says that he’s not even started calculating the cost of the project. “We’re just putting everything we have into it. God willing, we will have our own campus in two years time. I have a place in mind that is about three to five acres, a quiet kind of environment where there will be music and not car horns,” he says. Apart from visiting faculty from all around the world and guidance from veteran musicians, the students will have special classes from Rahman himself.

“I am doing just two films a year, so I guess I should have all the time,” he smiles.

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