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Bridging the gap
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Technology meets culture in A.R. Rahman’s new music conservatory
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Photo: R. Ravindran
Do the math A.R. Rahman: ‘We are a country of 1.4 billion people and we don’t have our own national symphony orchestra’
He lured an entire generation of musicians towards technology. And now he comes a full circle.A.R. Rahman’s current passion is to create an Indian orchestra. The first step towards that is establishing the KM 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 and musicians to learn the importance of technology and the basics of sound recording. “We want our Hindustani and Carnatic musicians to be able to read Western notations and adapt to playing with other musicians,” says Rahman. “So that they can learn to play with ten other sitarists at the same time. That’s the sound we’ve never heard before,” he says. 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.”
Spirituality plays a huge role in his life, so much that he’s chosen to call the conservatory KM as he believes that these initials are “spiritually close” to him and have brought him good luck. After frequent trips to Prague and Birmingham to record orchestral sound for his films, Rahman pondered over the need for our own orchestra. “Even Bahrain and Iraq have their own national 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 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 is on the other side of art. If we educate our people, we could get that into the mainstream,” he explains. Rahman has pulled all strings and created an advisory panel consisting of a repertoire of Indian and Western musicians. The conservatory received about 250 applications since the announcement on his birthday. Rahman says that he’s not even started calculating the cost. “We’re just putting everything we have into it. God willing, we will have our own campus in two years. I have a place in mind, about three to five acres, a quiet kind of environment.” Apart from visiting faculty and guidance from veteran musicians, the students will have classes from Rahman himself. “I am doing two films a year, so I guess I should have the time,” he smiles.
For more information visit arrahman.com or audiomedia.in.
SUDHISH KAMATH
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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